168 Misc. 490 | N.Y. App. Term. | 1938
Judgment unanimously reversed upon the law and the facts, with thirty dollars costs to plaintiff, and judgment directed for plaintiff for $339.20, with interest thereon from July 7, 1934, together with taxable costs.
The action was brought by the plaintiff, the purchaser, under a contract for the purchase and sale of vacant land, to recover his down payment and expenses by reason of the unmarketability of defendant’s title.
Defendant and her husband originally had owned the land as tenants by the entirety. By a deed dated October 14, 1927, and recorded June 13, 1928, the husband had conveyed his interest to defendant, his wife. It is admitted this deed was given without consideration and that on the dates mentioned the husband had many unpaid creditors. On July 2, 1928, an involuntary petition in bankruptcy was filed against the husband and his brother, copartners in the wholesale export and import grocery business, alleging that, while insolvent, they permitted judgments to be obtained against them and a levy to be made upon their property. Upon the husband’s consent he was subsequently adjudicated a bankrupt. His schedules showed liabilities of some $14,000 and assets of about $2,000. On January 23, 1929, the husband was discharged, and on July 7, 1930, the trustee was discharged and the estate closed. On July 17, 1934, the date fixed for the closing, plaintiff rejected the title because the conveyance from the husband to the wife was subject to attack by the unpaid creditors disclosed by the bankruptcy proceeding. The title was not rejected because it was subject to attack only in the bankruptcy proceeding. The
All concur. Present — Lewis, Smith and McCooey, Jr., JJ.