106 Mo. 240 | Mo. | 1891
The petition in this case is in the nature of a creditor’s bill, and it seeks to set aside and
This petition was filed April 4, 1881. Defendants filed a general denial June 8,1881. On the fifteenth day of October, 1887, defendant, Martha E. Bobb, who alone actively defended the suit in the court below, filed her separate answer to the petition, as follows: “Now comes the defendant, Martha E. Bobb, and by leave of
Upon the issues thus made, the case came on for trial, and was determined. The plaintiff offered documentary evidence, whereupon defendant, Martha E. Bobb, objected to the introduction of any evidence against her, because no allegations sufficient to charge her property were made in the petition. The court overruled the objection, and defendant, Martha E. Bobb, excepted to the ruling; and this presents the first question for decision.
I. Defendants’ counsel contend that on the trial the plaintiffs abandoned the case stated in the petition, and, without warning, sprung a new case of fraud, affecting Mrs. Bobb’s title to the property, which was not alluded to in their petition, based on an entirely new theory. We do not concur in this view of the issues tendered by the petition. The averment is that Charles Bobb. bought the land and paid for it, and had the title placed in Bagot and Letcher for the purpose of hindering and delaying his creditors, and to prevent the property from being subjected to the payment of the judgment in favor of plaintiffs ; and then adds that plaintiffs are informed and believe, and so state, that Martha E. Bobb claims to be the equitable owner of the property, and to have paid for it, although the title stood in John Letcher; and it is prayed that she be made a party defendant. It is conceded in the argument that the allegations of the petition make out a
It is insisted, however, that when the deed vesting the title in her was recorded several years prior to the trial,. and Mrs. Bobb disclosed in her answer, filed in 1887, that she was clothed with the legal title to the property, plaintiffs ought to have amended their petition so as to conform to the facts occurring subsequent to the institution of the action. Plaintiffs could have done this; but we know of no rule of pleading, either in a court of equity or a court of law, requiring them to do it. If the occurrences subsequent to the institution
II. The next point made for a reversal of the decree in this case is that the court erred in the admission of evidence; and, in order that this point may be fairly understood, it becomes necessary to give a resume of the issues presented, and of the facts as developed on the trial. It appeared that Miller did hold the deed, of trust for $8,000, mentioned in the petition, dated September 23,1865, and that Mrs. Bobb claimed to have furnished the money to buy it, and that she was in fact
But it is contended with much earnestness that the petition, interlocutory and final decrees, as well as the answers of the defendants in that case, were not admissible as evidence in this case of the existence of Charles Bobb’s indebtedness prior to the rendition of the judgment, on the ground that these, as to that issue, are res inter alios acta. According to the issues presented,
As stated before, this objection proceeds upon the .ground that these documents constitute, as to Mrs. Bobb, res inter alios acta, and on that ground are incompetent to prove the issue which it is claimed they do prove, and which they must have been offered to prove. While some authorities announce the doctrine contended for by defendants (Snodgrass v. Bank, 25 Ala. 169, and Donley v. McKiernan, 62 Ala. 35), yet it does not seem very logical to hold that the pleadings and judgment in a cause cannot be read in evidence against a stranger to the record to establish the indebtedness for which the judgment was rendered prior to its rendition, because, as to him, they constitute res inter alios acta, and at the same time hold that these are admissible in such case to prove an indebtedness at the time the judgment was rendered. It seems, on principle, that, if a stranger to the record is not bound by the judgment in one case, he ought not to be in the •other. The indebtedness of Charles Bobb at the time •of the inception of the alleged fraudulent transactions is an issue in the cause, and both parties concede its importance. It devolved on plaintiff to prove it. How shall he prove it % There is only one way for him to do it, and that is to introduce' evidence of res inter alios acta.
The plaintiffs charge the fraud was conceived by Bobb in 1875, and consummated in 1879. The documents
But plaintiffs go further in their contention, and claim that these documents not only prove the pendency of the suit, and that certain facts were alleged to exist, but also that the facts alleged did exist. These documents were offered as evidence generally. If defendants had made the specific objection that they were not competent to prove the facts alleged in them, it seems that by the generally recognized rule they ought not to have been admitted for that purpose. Vogt v. Ticknor, 48 N. H. 242; Snodgrass v. Bank, 25 Ala. 169; Nichols v. Wadsworth, 40 Minn. 549; Donley v. McKiernan, 62 Ala. 35 ; Bump. Fraud. Con. 574, 575, and case's cited; Wait on Fraud. Con. & Creditors’ Bills, secs. 74, 270. In some jurisdictions, however, it has been held that the whole record in a case may be looked to, to see when the indebtedness involved, and for which judgment was rendered, first accrued. Hinde’ s Lessee v. Longworth, 11 Wheat. 209; Goodnow v. Smith, 97 Mass. 69. But the objection made to the introduction of this evidence being general, and the evidence being admissible for some purposes, the question is, can parties be heard now to urge the specific objection that it was not admissible to prove the existence of Bobb’s indebtedness prior to 1869? We hold they cannot. It is evident this objection in this case is a technical one. It took the parties nine years to litigate this indebtedness, and it was found, after a most stubborn and prolonged resistance on the part of Charles Bobb, that it had accrued from 1843 to 1869 ; and it can scarcely be conceived that any of the parties had any desire to go over the same ground again. It cannot be maintained that the judgment against Bobb was procured by his collusion. As to him, it is certain the rendition of that judgment was in invitum. Here the defendants interposed the objection that this evidence was' “incompetent and irrelevant, and as being of a suit to which Mrs. Bobb was not a
III. Defendants contend, in the third place,' that as John H. Bobb, the present plaintiff, wrote the deed by which Charles Bobb conveyed what is known as the “Hayden place” to Martha E- Bobb’s trustee in 1861, he cannot attack it now. He does not seek directly to-attack it. The fraudulent transaction attacked here-originated in October, 1875, and the consideration of the-deed of 1861 comes in issue only collaterally and incidentally. It is true, John H. Bobb did write the deed, and he now claims that it was without valuable-consideration. In fact, the expressed consideration of the deed is $5; and hence we can see no recital in the-deed that would estop plaintiffs from asserting that-there was no other consideration than the $5, or even that the $5 was not paid. Mrs. Bobb claims she derived, the money which she paid for the Miller deed of trust from the land conveyed by the deed of 1861; and plaintiffs had a right to show, if they could, that it was a. voluntary conveyance on the part of Bobb, made in fraud of creditors, at a time when he was in debt heavily. The case of Bobb v. Bobb, 99 Mo. 578, cited by
IV. The court committed no error in permitting plaintiffs to introduce evidence to overthrow the evidence given by Mrs. Bobb. Plaintiffs did not make Mrs. Bobb their witness by introducing in evidence her deposition taken in another proceeding. The deposition was admissible against her as an admission; and certainly there is no rule of law that would preclude plaintiffs from introducing other admissions of hers contradicting those contained in the deposition. Besides that, while the statements which Mrs. Taylor testifies Mrs. Bobb made to her tend to contradict what she said in the deposition read by plaintiffs, yet they were admissible as primary evidence against her as a party to the suit, and for that reason there was no error in admitting them.
V. This brings us to a consideration of the issues of fact presented by this record. The trial court in substance found that the indebtedness of Charles Bobb for which the judgment of June 15, 1878, was rendered against him began to accrue in 1845, and from time to time continually increased, until at the time of the rendition of said judgment it amounted to the sums adjudged against him ; that Charles Bobb bought and paid for the Miller deed of trust, amounting to $8,000; that said Charles Bobb caused the land described in that deed of trust, which is the same involved in this suit, to be sold by the trustee, at which sale he bought the property through defendant, Henry C. Bagot, acting as his agent, for the sum of $4,000, which sum was not paid, but was credited on the note secured by the deed of trust, in pursuance of which sale the trustee, at the instance and by the direction of Charles Bobb, executed a deed to said property to said Bagot, dated February 6, 1879; that Charles Bobb caused said Bagot to convey by .deed dated July 1, 1879, the said
Is this finding supported by the evidence, is the question presented for decision. The record is quite voluminous, and many collateral and incidental questions have been discussed by counsel; but the question may be simplified by stating the ultimate fact to be found which controlled the ruling of the trial ■court, and which must control us. There is no dispute that the Miller deed of trust amounted to $8,000, and that it was purchased in-October, 1875, either by Charles Bobb, or his wife, and that this deed of trust constitutes the sole consideration of the purchase of the property involved in this controversy. It was assumed in the .argument by both parties, and we think the assumption warranted by the record, that Charles Bobb’s financial •condition, and the circumstances that environed him, in 1875, were such that if he furnished the money to •purchase the said deed of trust the judgment of the lower court must be upheld. Hence the simple question is presented for determination, did Charles Bobb furnish .the purchase money of the said deed of trust, or did his wife furnish it ? H he furnished it, the decree in the ■case must be affirmed; if she furnished it, it will have to be reversed.
A part of the facts on which this theory is based '.is not disputed. There was a prior deed of trust on ■the “Hayden property” for the sum of $4,372.74, dated October 25, 1855. This prior deed of trust was entered “satisfied” on the margin of the record by Charles Bobb, assignee, on the fifteenth day of May, 1867, the ¡day this property was sold for $13,000. The loan of $2,551 on the “ Hayden property ” in 1857 was made in <the name of Charles Bobb, when the “ Hayden place”
These are the two opposing theories of this case. "We do not deem it necessary, nor do we think any .good purpose would be subserved, to review at length the arguments presented in their support by the attorneys for the respective parties. We will briefly refer to them, however. We will say right here that the finding of the lower court being simply that Charles Bobb did, and his wife did not, furnish the purchase money of the Miller deed of trust, we do not know what view that court took of the issue made as to the means Mrs. Bobb had in 1856, and the bona fldes of the deed of November 4, 1861, of Charles Bobb to his wife. Suffice it to say that it is fairly a debatable question
This clears the deck, then, of all questions arising prior to May 15, 1867. That day $13,000 was realized by the sale of the “ Hayden place.” Here, again, we have two distinct theories as to what became of that money. Defendants contend that the whole of it was invested in loans and real estate for Mrs. Bobb; while, on the other hand, it is insisted by plaintiffs, first, that none of it ought to have been, or was, invested for her; and, second, that, at best, she was only entitled to a share of it, in the proportion of $2,551 to $4,372.74. This last contention alone we will discuss. There is no evidence, whatever, as to when Charles Bobb became the assignee of the deed of trust ou the “Hayden property” for $4,372.74, dated in 1855. One single
We will remark, here, that Mrs. Bobb does not claim that she invested any of the principal in the Miller deed of trust, but that she paid for it solely out of the interest on loans and the rents of her property, and she also concedes that all she possessed in 1875 was derived from the proceeds of the sale of the “Hayden property.” , She had $4,333.33 cash, then, on this assumption, May 15, 1867. The other $8,666.66
We feel satisfied, also, that Charles Bobb transacted his business, in 1875, in the name of his wife to cover up his property from his creditors, and from the following considerations : Though Mrs. Bobb claims her husband got over $2,500 in 1856, and $4,333.33 in 1867, and over $10,000 in 1870, of her money, yet no trace of it in bank or notes can be found till August 3, 1875, and then in three months and a half, from August 3 to November 30, 1875, she has in bank of her own money, outside of moneys arising frpm discounts, the sum of $20,318.50, and from August 3, 1875, to August 2, 1877, — two years, — she had in bank of her own money
This is her story, and it. is preposterous in the extreme. It was impossible for her income to have produced the sums she claimed it did. The bank account she produced was Charles Bobb’s account, in fact. She says the $4,000 note was discounted to enable
Besides that, the trial judge heard Mrs. Bobb testify, saw her manner upon the witness stand; and as she did not call her husband to corroborate her, but submitted her case on her own testimony, he is better qualified to judge of her credibility than this court. And, again, we ought to defer somewhat to the finding of the court below, even if the fact was in some degree in doubt as to how it ought to be decided. Finding no error in the record, the judgment is affirmed.