35 S.C. 431 | S.C. | 1892
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The plaintiffs bring this action to set aside, as fraudulent and void, a certain deed from the defendant, S. A. Glover, to her co-defendant, W. G. Wells, and to recover possession of the tract of land purporting to be conveyed by said deed. The facts in brief upon which the controversy arose may be stated as follows: On the 24th day of December, 1883, one McCain conveyed the land in question to the defendant, S. A. Glover, the consideration expressed in the deed being two thousand dollars, one-half of which was paid in cash and the balance secured by two notes of five hundred dollars each, one payable on the 1st day of January, 1885, and the other on the 1st day of January, 1886, together with a mortgage of the pre
It appears from the testimony, that on the 4th day of September, 1884, five days before the execution of said deed, Mrs.. Glover was distinctly informed by one of the attorneys for plaintiffs that they were instructed to bring suit immediately, unless the notes were paid, and that they intended to carry out their instructions, and that Mrs. Glover at once sent for Wells, who lived in the adjoining County of Edgefield, some thirty miles distant; but before he arrived, as we presume, the deed in controversy was executed, for the trial justice who was sent for by Mrs. Glover to prepare the deed, testifies that Wells was not there when the deed was executed and probated. Wells in his testimony says that when Mrs. Glover bought the land from McCain, he loaned her the one thousand dollars with which to make the cash payment, and took her unsecured note therefor, and that the verbal understanding between them was that if Mrs. Glover failed to meet her notes to McCain as they became due, she was to let him have the land and he was to pay McCain, which he did, the
The master, to whom it was referred by a consent order to hear and determine all the issues of law and fact, made his report, finding as matter of fact, “That the conveyance by Mrs. Glover to W. G. Wells was in whole or in part without consideration, and that it was made with the intent, on the part of both parties, to defeat, delay, and hinder other creditors of Mrs. Glover in the collection of their demands against her;” and as a conclusion of law, “That said conveyance is void and should be set aside and
From this judgment defendants appeal substantially upon two grounds: 1st. That there was error in holding that the deed in question was void for fraud. 2nd. That there was error in adjudging that plaintiffs were entitled to recover possession of said land.
2 3A court, when called upon to investigate the bona fides of such a' transaction, would require the fullest, clearest, and most satisfactory evidence of good faith on the part of the parties concerned before it could be sustained. Such, however, is very far from the character of the testimony adduced by the defence. The only testimony offered to explain this, to say the very least of it, suspicious transaction is that of the person most interested; neither Mrs. Glover nor any other person who might have corroborated Wells in important particulars being offered as witnesses, nor were any of the papers alleged to have passed between the parties introduced in evidence. Then, too, the glaring inconsistency in the statement made in Wells’s answer, to the effect that Mrs. Glover had paid all but a very inconsiderable balance of the note for one thousand dollars loaned her by Wells to make the cash payment to McCain, with that made in his testimony in regard to the same matter, together with the extraordinary nature of the transaction, -when viewed in the light of a mere business arrangement, as Wells says it was— his relationship to Mrs. Glover being “no inducement to loaning her the money.” For here was a young man, just starting out in life, loaning a considerable sum of money to a female engaged in the hazardous business of merchandising, whose financial condition he says he knew nothing of, though he “thought she would fail,” without any security whatever, relying simply upon a ver
The judgment of this court is, that the judgment of the Circuit Court be affirmed.