128 A. 835 | Pa. | 1925
Argued March 23, 1925. In 1894, the defendant, Ella G. Edmonds, was married to R. E. Edmonds, at Buffalo, New York, and four years later removed to Pittsburgh where they have since resided and where Mr. Edmonds has been continuously engaged in business. In 1901 he bought a home on Harriet Street for $10,000, taking title thereto in the name of his wife. He paid $2,500 thereon and they gave a joint bond and mortgage for the balance. Edmonds was then perfectly solvent and not engaged or about to engage in any hazardous business. In April, 1912, Edmonds gave his wife $7,000 to pay on the bond and mortgage, which she did, leaving an unpaid balance of $500, subject to which she then exchanged the Harriet Street property for a house and lot on Rippey Street, the latter being subject to a mortgage of $5,000, and the title thereto being taken in the name of Mrs. Edmonds. Plaintiff is a Pennsylvania corporation located at Norristown and Edmonds is and, since about 1906, has been its sales *239 agent in Pittsburgh. In 1915 Edmonds separated from his wife and children and about the same time two judgments amounting to approximately $10,000 were entered against him, in favor of the plaintiff on notes containing warrants of attorney. By executions issued thereon, the Rippey Street property was seized, in the fall of 1915, and sold by the sheriff to plaintiff, as Edmond's property; thereupon this action of ejectment was brought. Plaintiff averred and offered evidence tending to prove that Edmonds was insolvent in 1912 and that payment of the $7,000 was invalid as tending to hinder and delay creditors, of which it was one, and that as to them, he was the equitable owner of the Rippey Street property. The trial judge directed a verdict for plaintiff for the land at issue; but later the court in banc entered judgment in its favor for seventy ninety-fifths of such land and therefrom defendant has appealed.
The judgment cannot be sustained. Where as here a solvent husband buys land and takes title thereto in the name of his wife it is presumed to be a gift from him to her (Gassner v. Gassner,
Edmonds was joint maker of the bond and mortgage given for the Harriet Street property and his estate, real and personal, could have been taken to satisfy the bond: Pier v. Siegel,
Moreover, the title plaintiff acquired at the sheriff's sale, if any, was a legal title and this is a legal, as distinguished from an equitable, ejectment; hence, there cannot be a conditional verdict (Littieri v. Freda,
Mr. Edmonds was in 1912 and still is doing a large business and there is nothing to indicate that he or his wife intended any injury to other creditors by the $7,000 transaction, or that either was guilty of any actual fraud or bad faith. The evidence as to his solvency at that time was conflicting, and that question, if controlling, which in our opinion it was not, should have been submitted *242 to the jury. It is not necessary to consider the other assignments of error.
The judgment is reversed and is here entered for the defendant non obstante veredicto.