21 A. 349 | R.I. | 1891
The bill sets out that Colton, Van Zile Mulvey, shoe-dealers in Providence, carrying a stock worth from thirty to forty thousand dollars, gave a mortgage to the respondents, Gardiner and Estes, upon said stock of goods in October, 1888; that, in December, 1888, the complainant discounted a note of Colton, Van Zile Mulvey, for the sum of $2,000, and in February, 1889, another note for $1,000; that March 6, 1889, Colton Mulvey, Van Zile having previously retired from the firm, made an assignment to the respondent Vincent for the benefit of creditors; that judgment has been obtained *227 on the first note, with execution which has been returned nullabond; that said mortgage was not recorded until March 6, 1889, just three hours before said assignment, and that it was wilfully and designedly kept off the public records so as not to affect the credit of said Colton, Van Zile Mulvey, whereby the mortgagors were given a false and fictitious credit in their business, as said Gardiner and Estes well knew must be its effect, if said mortgage was valid, and whereby the complainant and other creditors were deceived and misled into trusting said Colton, Van Zile Mulvey with money and goods to a large amount, upon the faith of their ostensible unincumbered ownership and possession of the large amount of property invested in their business as aforesaid. The complainant therefore claims that said Gardiner and Estes were not and are not entitled to set up their mortgage as against the claims of creditors, but that such claims are entitled to be paid out of said assigned property as if said mortgage did not exist.
It has been decided in Wilson v. Esten,