85 Wis. 530 | Wis. | 1893
The first contention of appellants is that the findings of the circuit court as to the possession of separate estate by the wife and as to the investment thereof in the real and personal property in controversy are contrary to the weight of the evidence, and that, on the contrary, the evidence shows that all of such property was. purchased by the husband with his own moneys; and they say that the testimony as to the sources and origin of the wife’s alleged separate estate is absolutely incredible. If this contention be well-founded, then the judgment manifestly cannot be-sustained, because in a contest of this nature between the wife and .the creditors of the husband, where the wife claims title to property by transfer direct from her husband, the wife must first establish the fact by satisfactory and clear evidence that she had a separate estate which she used in acquiring the property. Gettelmann v. Gitz, 18 Wis. 439.
It must be admitted that the wife told a very remarkable story as to the acquisition of her alleged separate estate. This story was, in substance, that she came to this country from France in 1868,— she being then twenty-five years of age,— with her father, mother, one brother, and two sisters; that her father taught school and had land in France; that he brought to this country 30,000 to 35,000 francs in gold, which she testifies was sewed up in the clothes of her father and mother and herself. This money, ■ she alleges, was changed to paper when they arrived in this country, at a premium of from forty to fifty cents. Of this money, 1,400 francs, she says, was her own, willed to her by her godmother, one Christina Staley, and given to her father to take care of. ' The family went first to Mani-
Now, as we have said,.this story .is in many respects remarkable, but we certainly are not prepared to say that it is incredible. More remarkable instances of the secretion of money come to light every day than the one which is here detailed. It frequently happens that people in the class of life to which these people evidently belonged have an abnormal distrust of banks and of investments of all kinds, and keep their money uninvested, as Josephines father is alleged to have done in this case. If evidence is to be always disbelieved because the story told seems remarkable or impossible, then a party whose rights depend on the proof of some fact out of the usual course of events will always be denied justice simply because his story is improbable. Such is not the rule. A remarkable and exceptional state of facts may be satisfactorily proven, and if so proven a court cannot refuse belief simply because it is out of the usual course of events. The circuit court, after hearing all the evidence, believed the defendants’ statements to be true; and we cannot, after careful reading of the evidence, say that his finding in this respect was wrong, and we concur therein. The circuit court also found that none of the conveyances or transfers attacked were made with intent on the part of either of the defendants to defraud the plaintiffs or any creditor of Hubert, and such is also our conclusion from the evidence.
It being, then, satisfactorily established that the wife had a separate estate with which all the property in question was bought; that title to the property was taken in the
So far, in this opinion, we have discussed questions relative to the validity,of the transfers of March, 1883. Much that we have said applies with equal force to the conveyance of February, 1886. So far as the facts relating to the last-named transfer differ from the facts surrounding the conveyance of 1883,, we agree with the conclusions of the circuit court, and detailed discussion thereof is unnecessary.
It follows from what has been said that judgment for the defendants was rightly rendered.
By the Court.— Judgment affirmed.