57 N.Y.S. 236 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1899
This action was begun September 10, 1896, by several judgment creditors of William W. Corey: (1) To have aboiit five acres of land conveyed April i, 1896, by Benjamin Hodge to Cynthia M. Corey, by a deed executed and recorded April 9, 1896, adjudged to be the property of William W. Corey, and subject to the claims of his creditors. (2) To set aside as fraudulent a mortgage executed May 8, 1896, by William W. Corey to Cynthia M. Corey, his wife,
Prior to 1892 the defendant William W. Corey was a farmer,, and in March of that year he removed to the city of Watertown and entering into partnership with Orrin A. Edmonds (the brother of his wife) under the name of Edmonds & Corey, engaged in-business as retail dealers in - groceries. Each partner contributed between $400 and $500 to the capital stock of the firm. The business was continued for eleven mouths, when it was dissolved, Mr. Edmonds saying to the defendant William W. Corey, his partner, and to his wife, that they were losing money. After the dissolution of the firm in February, 1893, the defendant William W.. Corey continued the business in his own name until June 8, 1896,, when he made a general assignment for the benefit of creditors to the defendant Frank L. Pelo. Among the assigned property was a. stock of groceries and fixtures, inventoried at $1,188, and sold by theassignee for $592.43. The accounts due him were inventoried at. $4,041, upon which the assignee collected $800. So it appears that' the defendant William W. Corey was indebted in several thousand dollars more than he had assets to pay. There is no controversy in the evidence given on the trial, as the defendants offered none.. William W. Corey and his wife, Cynthia M. Corey, were examined July 1 and 2, 1896, in proceedings supplementary to execution. She testified that when she and her husband removed toWatertown, in March, 1892, she owned no property, and that no one owed her anything, and that in February, 1893, she and her husband
Mary J. Adams, one of the plaintiffs, testified that in the autumn of 1894 she talked with Mrs. Corey, and that Mrs. Corey told her that what was made from boarders and from the grocery all went in together, and that it made no difference in whose name it was kept, and that it all was to be devoted to paying the creditors. At the same time Mrs. Adams had a conversation with Mr. Corey, and lie stated that they were doing well in the grocery and in keeping boarders, and that all that was made was to be devoted to paying the debts, which evidence was not contradicted.
In the supplemental examinations it was testified that the husband was in receipt of a pension of $6 a month, which would amount to $216 for the three years, and the wife testified that she received “some of it.” How much does now appear. Had she received all of it and invested it in the farm, it would have paid but a small part of the consideration.
A contract between a husband and wife by which the latter is to be paid for her services rendered in the household, is void.as against the creditors of the husband; and if his estate is transferred to the wife in payment of such services and in performance of such a contract, the transfer is void as against the creditors of the husband, and the property so transferred or purchased with the avails of such a contract may be reached by his creditors. (Coleman v. Burr, 93 N. Y. 17; Blaechinska v. H. Mission & Home, 130 id. 497; Porter v. Dunn, 131 id. 314; Matter of Callister, 153 id. 294; Talcott v. Thomas, 21 N. Y. Supp. 1064; S. C., less fully reported, 50 N. Y. St. Repr. 621.)
All concurred; McLennan, J., not sitting.
The judgment, so far as it is appealed from, reversed and a new tidal ordered, with costs in favor of the appellants and against the respondents to abide the event.