222 Pa. 271 | Pa. | 1908
Opinion by
The question here at issue was whether Samuel Kurtz, as whose property the premises in dispute were sold by his assignee in bankruptcy to the plaintiffs, was at the time of such sale the real owner, notwithstanding the fact that the legal title was in the defendant’s predecessor, the Tanners’ Mutual Fire Insurance Company. The effort on the part of the plaintiffs was to show that in the original acquisition of the several properties, Kurtz was the real purchaser, and that title was taken in the name of the insurance company with the double purpose, first, to secure the company for a loan made by it to Kurtz to enable him to make the purchase, and second, to con
The remaining assignments, three in number, are directed to a single point — the sufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict. Collectively considered, the relevancy of the evidence for the plaintiff contained in the several offers becomes all the more apparent. The connection between them is at once observable, and together they exhibit a complete history of the transaction out of which the controversy arises. If the narrative thus exhibited be accepted as true, it is so strongly persuasive of the fact sought to be established — that the insurance company either in acquiring legal title to the premises, or in subsequently asserting such title against the creditors of the real owner, was, in complicity with such owner, attempting a fraud, — that in the absence of countervailing evidence no jury would be justified in reaching a different conclusion. It would be useless in this connection to discuss the entire evidence. A brief reference to some salient feature will suffice. These show a purchase by Kurtz in his own name at a public sale of two of the properties at the price of $2,590. By written article he personally became bound for the unpaid purchase money, and gave as his surety Bechtel who at the time was treasurer of the insurance company. A year and a half later Kurtz caused the deed for the properties to be made directly to the insurance company. Not only do the records of the insurance company show no authorization for the purchase of these properties, but the company’s ledger shows that after the conveyance to the company, in the account with Kurtz, the latter was individually charged with the entire purchase money, and from time to time credited with interest thereon. The.company never was in actual possession of either of the properties. Kurtz managed and controlled them as his own, never accounting to the company for any rents or income. Nowhere in the books or records of the company is there anything which
The assignments of error are overruled and the judgment is affirmed.