68 Iowa 147 | Iowa | 1885
The defendants are husband and wife. They were married in the state of Wisconsin, in the year 1868. Before their marriage the defendant Geo. W. Warner was the owner of some land in Mitchell county, in this state. He sold eighty acres of his land to his co-defendant before their marriage. Soon after their marriage defendants took up their residence upon the land of the wife. This land was then partially improved. Some years after-wards the defendant Geo. W. Warner purchased other lands, so that in 1880 he was the owner of three eighty-acre tracts, to which he held the title, but the lands were largely incumbered by mortgages. On the eighth day of November, 1880, he conveyed the land owned by him to his wife, and on the same day he executed a chattel mortgage upon certain personal property to George Warner, his father, to secure the sum of $600, and at the same time he made a chattel mortgage on other personal property to his wife to secure an alleged claim of $600.
The plaintiff set out these facts in the petition, and alleges, in the usual form, that the conveyances were fraudulent as to the creditors of the defendant George W. Warner. It was incumbent on the plaintiff to establish the averments of the petition by a preponderance of the evidence. The defendants were the only witnesses examined in the case, except one other witness who was examined upon a point wholly immaterial to any question at issue between the parties. The plaintiff claimed a decree upon the testimony of the defendants alone. This testimony is presented to us in full by question and answer, and, as it was taken in the form of depositions, the case is presented upon appeal precisely as it was
We think the petition of the plaintiff should have been dismissed. Reversed.