102 N.J. Eq. 354 | N.J. Ct. of Ch. | 1928
The petitioners ask leave to be admitted as parties defendants in this suit to set aside conveyances of land made by the Cordosco Construction Company and charged to have been made without consideration and fraudulently, to defeat the complainant's then existing debt, which was later reduced to judgment in a city district court of Newark. The petitioner, Nutley Home Builders, acquired some of the land after the bill was filed and notice of lis pendens was recorded, and mortgaged it to the other petitioner, Evergreen Avenue Construction Corporation. The petitioners claim to have acquired their respective interest for value without notice of the suit, although charged with notice of the lis pendens. The one has conveyed the land warranting the title, the other has assigned the mortgage guaranteeing its payment. A decree pro confesso
has been entered against the defendant under whom they held title, and unless they are admitted they are without remedy and they will have to pay the complainant's debt, the one to make good the warranty, the other the guaranty. *355
Under sections 29 and 30 of the Chancery act the petitioners would have been admitted to defend on the merits, notwithstanding the decree pro confesso, were they presently owners and mortgagees. Guest v. Hewitt,
Now, as to the merits of the application. The petitioners do not claim that the conveyances sought to be set aside, and under which they hold title, are not fraudulent, but they say they want to contest the right of the complainant, as a common creditor, to maintain the bill. The complainant's debt is not a statutory lien on the land, and no longer is it necessary that it should be. Under the former practice it was deemed essential, but the Fraudulent Conveyance act of 1919 (Cum. Supp. Comp. Stat. p.647) permits a common creditor, and even one whose debt has not matured, to file a bill *356
attacking fraudulent conveyances of his debtor. Cross v.Pennsylvania Mortgage Co.,
To entitle a party to be admitted to a litigation in which he may be interested he must show merit before he can be let in.Guest v. Hewitt, supra. The petitioners have shown none and their prayer will be denied. *357