178 Pa. 112 | Pa. | 1896
Opinion by
This is certainly a remarkable case. A man held a judgment for valuable consideration against another who held title to certain real estate. The plaintiff in the judgment, being a lawyer and conferring with the defendant and his wife about a suit pending against the defendant, advised, so say the plaintiffs in the present suit, his clients to sell the real estate to a friend, in order to cheat the creditor who had sued the client, and was about to obtain an award of arbitrators against him. The advice was followed, it is said, the land was. conveyed to the friend without a penny of consideration, and, as a matter of course, the deed was void for fraud against the creditor. Subsequently, after the creditor had proceeded to judgment and execution, and bought in the title notwithstanding the fraudulent conveyance, he conveyed the title to a trustee for the wife of the defendant in the judgment and the trustee conveyed it to the wife, and now, it is claimed that the owner of the original judgment, which was confessed to secure a real and honest debt, has lost his lien and cannot enforce his judgment, why? Because, it is said, he advised the original fraudulent conveyance. Suppose he did, how did he lose his lien ? What is the connection between the premise and the conclusion of this astounding proposition ? Of course there is none. If the owner of the honest judgment had a valid lien, which is not and cannot be disputed, by what conceivable process of reasoning did he lose it. If he-had it before he advised the fraudulent conveyance how did he - lose it because of that advice ? If it was a good judgment before.the advice was given, because it was given for a valuable consideration, it was a good judgment thereafter because it was still a judgment which was given for a valuable consideration. Therefore it was still a good judgment. The fact of good consideration was precisely the same after as before the advice was
It seems incredible that any court could have been induced to lend its sanction to such a proposition, but it is so, and this case was submitted to the jury upon the question of fact whether John had such an intent when he gave the advice to the Fidlers to cheat their creditor Smink by conveying his land to Lucas without consideration. It is difficult to deal with patience with such a proposition. Besides the utter want of any logical connection between the premise and conclusion of the proposition, there are inherent and radical defects in it which exterminate it the moment they are exposed. In the first place there is not even a shred of testimony anywhere in the cause that the defendant John ever had or conceived such an intent. The whole thing is a sheer fabrication, a mere figment of the imagination. Of course there is no direct proof of such a purpose. Not a witness testified to a declaration or a fact which indicates in the least degree the presence of such an intent. An attempt ismade to impute such an intent by an assertion that John schemed to get the land for himself at less than its value by not entering satisfaction of certain judgments which had been paid but not satisfied of record, thereby allowing the record to show a larger amount of judgments ’ than was really due. The argument totally ignores the consideration that it was Fidler’s business when he paid a judgment to see that it was satisfied, and if such judgments were permitted to remain open it was his neglect of his own duty in that regard. If the record was thus made to show a large amount of liens which were not owing, it was
Now it is not only proved aixd admitted by the plaintiffs, but they assert and argue xxow in their paper-book that it was a fx-audulent deed because it was made with intent thereby to defraud Smink. This is an allegation of their own fraud, in the creation of title iix Lucas, yet they xxow set up title in this action under this very fraudulent deed because they claim title by the subsequent deed which Lucas made to Mrs. Fidler. A s a matter of course they cannot do this, and especially they cannot do it against oxxe who was a bona fide judgment creditor of theirs by a judgment which was not divested by the sale under the Sxxxixxk judgment, axxd who acquired his title by a sheriff’s sale under this unimpeached and unimpeachable judgxixent. All the authorities hold that judgment creditors prior to a fraudulent sale by the debtor are not affected by a fraudxxlent deed made after their judgments are exxtered, because the fraudxxlexxt
This doctrine has been many tipies since reaffirmed and applied, and it is not at all disputed. Applying it to the entirely undisputed facts of the present case the following results are immediately apparent. The deed of William Fidler and wife to Michael Lucas dated August 10, 1877, was, and is admitted to have been, a fraud upon Eva A. Smink who was about to, and four days afterward,- did, obtain an award of arbitrators against William Fidler who was the owner of the title. That award was a lien against the title of the grantee Lucas. When Mrs. Smink issued execution and sold the title it was not the title of William Fidler but of the fraudulent grantee, Michael Lucas, that was sold. The prior lien creditors, among whom
In Zuver v. Clark, 104 Pa. 227, we said, “None but a person intended by the parties to the conveyance' to be hindered, delayed or defrauded, or holding under such person, for instance a purchaser at judicial sale in the collection of a debt due such person, can avoid the conveyance; for only as against such person or persons is the deed void under the statute of fraudulent conveyances.” Other cases holding the same doctrine are Fisher’s Appeal, 33 Pa. 294; Hoffman’s Appeal, 44 Pa. 95; Dungan’s Appeal, 88 Pa. 416; Haak’s Appeal, 100 Pa. 59, and Long v. McConnell, 158 Pa. 578.
It is not by any means the least consideration in the case that this claim of advice to commit a fraud on the part of John Avas set up and sustained only on the unsupported and uncorroborated testimony of William Fidler, Avho, by his confession, Avas the perpetrator of the fraud which was afterwards actually committed. Mr. John had nothing to do with the preparation or execution of the deed, according to the testimony of Fidler himself. It Avas Fidler and Lucas who went to ’Squire Hoke and got him to draw the deed. Fidler and his wife went to ’Squire Huntzinger to acknowledge it. None of them says that John had anything to do with it. But Mr. John being examined as a witness utterly and most positively denies the Avkole story.
Judgment reversed.