42 Iowa 123 | Iowa | 1875
The petition, in substance, alleges that a certain lease, executed to secure.the payment of certain rents to intestate, was by him assigned to defendants; that the assignment was fraudulently made for the purpose of preventing the creditors of decedent from subjecting the money due upon the lease to the payment of their claims, and that defendants have collected a large amount of money upon said lease, which is the property of the estate. Recovery is claimed for the amount of money alleged to have been collected by defendants. The foregoing is a statement of the substance of the petition so far as it presents facts showing the grounds for recovery. Other matters that are wholly irrelevant, or are matters of evidence, are alleged in the petition.
The court below, upon defendant’s motion, held that the petition presented a cause of action exclusively cognizable in a court of equity, and thereupon transferred the cause to the equity docket. In this we think there was error.
We have held that in a court of law an administrator may recover, for the benefit of the creditors, property, or its value, fraudulently conveyed by his intestate. Cooley, adm'r, v. Brown, 30 Iowa, 490; same case, 35 Iowa, 475.
It will bo observed that plaintiff claims no relief that cannot be had at law, and it may be further remarked, that defendants answered the petition by a simple denial of it£ allegations, and set up no matter in defense peculiarly cognizable in a court of equity.
It is our opinion that the court erred in ordering the transfer of the ease to the chaneery docket.
Reversed.