77 Iowa 203 | Iowa | 1889
It is claimed by the plaintiff that all of these conveyances and transfers were without consideration', fraudulent and void as to the creditors >of Thomas A, Maddux, and that the title held by Ezra T. Maddux is a secret trust, and that as to said creditors the land is the property of Thomas A. Maddux, and should be subjected to the payment of his debts. On the other hand, the defendants contend that the conveyances were made in good faith, and for valuable considerations, and are really what they purport to be. There is possibly this exception to this claim, which is that the quitclaim deed made to Ezra T. Maddux by the other children of Elizabeth Maddux, deceased, was without consideration, but was made in good faith, to enable Ezra T. Maddux to adjust and extinguish certain tax claims upon the land, or to procure a loan of money thereon. It is conceded that Thomas A. Maddux is insolvent. It appears from the evidence that after the death of Elizabeth Maddux the defendant Thomas A. Maddux, and all of his children, remained in Boone county, and in possession
We recite these facts in connection with the origination of these judgments, not as directly affecting the title to the land in controversy, but as showing the general method pursued by the defendants in the prosecution of their business. It would seem that they ought to have paid the debts made necessary by the purchase of implements and machinery with which to carry on their business; and their conduct in this regard tends in in some degree to show that their transactions and claims, with reference to the property of the family, have
Bnt we recur to the matter of the land in Boone county. After farming a few years in Crawford county, Thomas A. Maddux, with all of his family excepting Ezra T. Maddux, removed to the territory of New Mexico. Ezra T. Maddux remained in Crawford county until about the year 1885, when he removed to the state of Nebraska. Before removing, he sold a farm which he owned to H. C. Laub. In this transaction he paid a judgment which Laub held against Thomas A. Maddux for goods purchased to carry on the Crawford county farming operations, above referred to. Soon after his removal to Nebraska, Thomas A. Maddux returned from New Mexico and took possession of the land in controversy, built a dwelling house upon it, and now resides thereon. It is claimed by the defendants that the conveyance from Thomas A. Maddux to Elizabeth Maddux was founded upon a valuable consideration, which consisted of money paid to him which she owned in her own right, and which she acquired from the estates of her father and of her mother. The account given of this separate estate by Thomas A. Maddux is not at all satisfactory. It is indefinite in time, place and circumstance, and his testimony in regard thereto is confused and absolutely contradictory. Besides, he made the conveyance of the land to his wife three days before the decree of foreclosure, and after he had sustained large losses in some business enterprises. It is correct, and this court has frequently held, that a husband may discharge a bona-fide indebtedness to his wife by a conveyance of property to her, and neither prior nor subsequent creditors can question the transaction. Jones v. Brandt, 59 Iowa, 332, and other cases. But such a transaction cannot be sustained without satisfactory evidence that actual contractual relations existed between the husband and wife with reference to her separate money or property. And then the subsequent acts and declarations of Thomas A. Maddux with reference to the land in controversy are inconsistent with