152 Ind. 135 | Ind. | 1899
Appellees brought this action to set aside as fraudulent, conveyances of certain real estate made by Alvin S. and Milton H. Nelson, through a trustee, to their wives, the appellants, Sarah J. Nelson and Mary Nelson. Final judgment was rendered in favor of appellees, setting aside said conveyances, and ordering that said real estate he sold to pay appellees’ judgments against said Alvin S. and Milton H. Nelson. Only Sarah J. Nelson and Mary Nelson appeal, and each separately assign errors. The errors assigned are: (1) The court erred in its conclusion of law; (2), the court, erred in overruling the motions for judgment in her favor on the special finding, of facts.
The record contains what purports to be a special finding by the court, with conclusions of law thereon; but as it does not appear that the same was made at the request of any of the parties to the action we are compelled to treat it as a general and not a special finding. Jacobs v. State, 127 Ind. 77, and cases cited; Sheets v. Bray, 125 Ind. 33, and cases cited. No question is therefore presented by the first error assigned.
Section 560 Burns 1894, section 551 Horner 1897, requires that in a special finding the court shall first state the facts in writing and then the conclusions of law upon them, “and judgment shall be rendered accordingly.”' This is for the purpose of enabling a party to except to the decision of the court upon the questions of law involved in the, case. If a judgment rendered in such a case should not conform to the conclusions of law stated, the remedy is by motion to modify the judgment, so as to conform to the conclusions of law;
/While the overruling of,motions to render judgment on a special finding not in conformity with the conclusions of law, even though they may be erroneous, will not reverse a cause, for the reason that no question can be presented on such ruling, yet if such motion were sustained and final judgment rendered according to the special finding, and contrary to the conclusions of law, they being erroneous, or if such judgment were rendered by the court of its own accord without any motion to that effect, such action of the court would
The finding shows that the value of the real estate conveyed to appellant Sarah J. Nelson was $800, and that her husband was a resident householder of the State, and had no other property at the time of said conveyance except personal property worth $183, which he had claimed as exempt, making the entire value of his property, real and personal, $983; that the real estate conveyed to Mary Nelson was worth $800, and that her husband was a resident householder of the State and had no other property except personal property worth $267, which he had claimed as exempt, making the total value of his property $1,067. In all other respects the finding sustains the allegations of the complaint.
Each of appellants insists that under said general finding she is entitled to hold one-third in value of the real estate conveyed to her and the remainder of the $600 exemption given by law to her husband, after deducting the value of the personal property claimed by him as exempt, free from the judgments of appellees, citing Citizens Bank v. Bolen, 121 Ind. 301; Phenix Ins. Co. v. Fielder, 133 Ind. 557; Brigham v. Hubbard, 115 Ind. 474, 478; Taylor v. Duesterberg, Adm., 109 Ind. 165, 169, 170; Smith v. Selz, 114 Ind. 229, 235.
Conceding without deciding as to the correctness of this insistence (see, however, Marmon v. White, 151 Ind. 445), a
Finding no available error in thé record the judgment is affirmed.