106 Iowa 649 | Iowa | 1898
The co-partnership of J. W. Wells & Co., consisting of J. W. Wells and N. Wells, commenced doing a general mercantile business at Decatur City, Iowa, in the year 1894. The business was continued until July, 1895, when J. W. Wells disposed of the stock of merchandise to one E. W. Townsend. In February, 1895, the plaintiff sold and delivered to J. W. Wells & Co. merchandise to the amount of six hundred and eighty-four dollars. Judgment for that amount and costs was rendered in favor of the plaintiff, and against J. W. Wells & Co. and the members of that firm, in Novemher, 1895, and is wholly unpaid. The firm and its members are now, and were when they closed business insolvent. In exchange for the merchandise, Townsend executed to the defendant, who is the wife of J. W. Wells, a deed for one hundred and ninety acres of land, subject to mortgages thereon to the amount of one thousand and three hundred dollars. At the same time, the defendant received from her husband a certificate of deposit for nine hundred and seventy-one dollars. The plaintiff claims that the conveyance of the land and the delivery of the certificate of deposit to Mrs. Wells were fraudulent, and by this action seeks to subject the land and the money represented by the certificate to the payment of the judgment. Mrs. Wells claims they were transferred to her without fraud, in payment of a debt which her husband was owing to her.