180 Mo. 666 | Mo. | 1904
On the 3d day of January, 1900, there was pending in the St. Louis City Circuit Court a suit wherein Mary Devlin was plaintiff and the defendant James Halpin was a defendant, about to come on for trial. And on the same day the said James Hal-pin by his quitclaim deed, in which his wife and co defendant herein, Margaret E. Halpin, joined, by them duly executed, acknowledged and filed for record, for the recited consideration of one dollar, conveyed lot number 24, Chamberlain Park, in city block numbered 3812, in the city of St. Louis to the defendant, The Hal-pin Real Estate Company. Afterwards in due course said suit came on for trial, and the said Mary Devlin, on the 10th of January, 1900, obtained judgment therein against said James Halpin for the sum of two thousand dollars, upon which execution was issued on the 10th day of April, 1900, and levied on said real estate, and in pursuance of a sale made under said execution, the plaintiff herein, Mary E. Bradshaw, became the purchaser thereof, and received a sheriff’s deed therefor, and afterwards at the October term, 1900, of said court, instituted this suit against the said James Halpin, Margaret E. Halpin and the Halpin Real Estate Company, charging in her petition that said conveyance was voluntary, without consideration, and made for the purpose of hindering, delaying and defrauding the creditors of the said James Halpin, and praying that the same be set aside, and for naught held .and for general relief. The answer of the defendants was a general denial. The court found the issues for the plaintiff, entered a decree in which said deed “is •cancelled, set aside and for naught held, ’ ’ and then proceeds :
“And the court doth further find that the plaintiff,
From the decree the defendants appeal.
1. • That the defendant James Halpin, besides the real estate in question, had no other property, real or personal, subject to execution, out of which the debt of Mrs. Devlin could have been made was conceded, and the right of plaintiff to have the deed in question set aside is manifest, unless the defense set up by James Halpin and his wife in their evidence on the trial was sustained. That defense in substance was that although the consideration recited in the deed was merely nominal there was in fact a real and valuable consideration therefor, in this, that the said James Halpin. at the time the deed was made was largely indebted to the Halpin Real Estate Company for moneys before that time received by him from the Halpin Manufacturing Company for rent of store No. 1513, on Chestnut street belonging to said real estate company, and occupied by said manufacturing company, and that said deed was made as a payment of the sum of $1,250 on said indebtedness.
It appears from their evidence that although the said James Halpin was execution proof, yet through the instrumentality of these two corporations, organized
2. It is contended, however, that notwithstanding such finding the bill ought to have been dismissed, because the plaintiff at the sheriff’s sale purchased the property for fifty dollars, when in fact it was worth twelve hundred and fifty dollars. There is nothing in this contention. It is well-settled law in this State, that where a debtor conveys his land for the purpose of defrauding his creditors, the land is subject to the creditors’ execution, and that a purchaser at the execution sale thereof occupies as advantageous a position as would the judgment creditor, when proceeding to set aside the debtor’s conveyance on the ground of fraud. [Ryland v. Callison, 54 Mo. 513; Lionberger v. Baker, 88 Mo. 447; Rinehart v. Long, 95 Mo. 396.]
3. It is finally contended that the decree of the court is erroneous in that it divests Margaret E. Hal-pin of all title in the lot fraudulently conveyed to the Halpin Real Estate Company and inasmuch as upon the setting aside of the fraudulent conveyance her dower interest in the premises revives, the error is prejudicial to her. That the decree is erroneous in this particular must be conceded, but the error can be easily corrected here by a modification of the decree, which is accord