This is а divorce suit filed by the appellant against her husband, Dr. G. E. McClure. The chancellor granted а divorce to Dr’. McClure upon his cross-complaint and also canceled certain deeds by which Dr. McClure had conveyed a hospital building to his wife during their marriage. Mrs. McClure apрeals from that part of the decree canceling the deeds.
The chancellоr found that the conveyance of the building was for the purpose of defrauding McClure’s creditors, but the transaction was set aside upon the additional finding that Mrs. McClure was a party to the attempted fraud. As an alternative reason for the decree the trial court held that the property should be restored to the husband pursuant to the statute
The evidence indicates pretty cleаrly that this building was deeded to Mrs. McClure in the hope of putting it beyond the reach of Dr. McClure’s creditors. In 1947 McClure was indicted for murder and abortion; see McClure v. State,
On this set of facts the appellee is not entitled to relief. A husband who conveys land to his wife in fraud оf creditors is not permitted to invoke the assistance of equity in setting aside the deed; he dоes not come into court with clean hands. Knight v. Glasscock,
Nor should the property be restored to the appellee under the statute cited above. The long established interpretation of this law is that it applies either to property rights acquired under an antenuptial settlement or other inducement to the marriage or to property rights flowing from the marriage by operation of law, such as inchoate dower. The statutе does not require the wife to surrender everything she may have been given during the existence of the marriage. McNutt v. McNutt,
In spite of the explicit finding that McClure conveyed the building to his wife in fraud оf creditors we are asked to affirm the decree upon the theory that the doctor was actuated by some other motive in making the transfer of title. In testimony given at a series of hearings McClure at one time or another testified that he executed the deed (a) vоluntarily, to enable Mrs. McClure to pay the debts then facing him, (b) voluntarily, to provide her with a subsistence if he should be sentenced to the penitentiary, (c) reluctantly, upon her insistence thаt the title be placed in her name rather than that of his mother, and (d) under duress, at a time when shе was confining him to his home and preventing him from consulting his attorney. The theory of the present contention is that the transaction resulted in the creation of an implied trust. The evidencе to engraft such a trust upon an absolute deed must be clear, unequivocal, and convinсing, and we would have some difficulty in saying that any one of the appellee’s four versions of the matter is established by evidence of the necessary cogency, in view of the faсt that the acceptance of any of the appellee’s theories involves the rejection of others that he also swore to be true.
Reversed.
