111 Neb. 805 | Neb. | 1924
This is a creditors’ bill brought by Mary Ethel Thies • against Perry J. Thies, Anna V. Thies, Charles C. Sheppard, et al., to set aside as fraudulent certain conveyances of real estate in Keith county, executed by Perry J. Thies to his codefendants. The trial resulted in a decree setting aside and canceling the deed from Perry J. Thies to his sister Anna V. Thies, and also setting aside and canceling the mortgage from Periy J. Thies to Charles C. Sheppard and Fred P. Marconnit, and further decreeing the title to the land to be in Perry J. Thies and subject to the lien of plaintiff’s judgment. Defendant’s have appealed.
The facts out of which the controversy arises are substantially as follows: On August 23, 1915, the plaintiff, Mary Ethel Thies, commenced an action for divorce in Douglas county against defendant Perry J. Thies, and one week later secured an order from the court requiring the
The defendants insist that the “amended petition” filed August 4, 1920, and the amended and supplemental petition thereto filed September 23, 1920, are but amendments to the original cause of action filed February 1, 1916, and that under the rule announced in Thies v. Thies, 104 Neb. 248, the demurrers should have been sustained. We think the argument is based on a false premise. While it is true that the petition was designated an “amended petition,” we think it must be regarded as the petition in a new and independent action from the original case. A summons was regularly issued upon the petition and served upon the defendants. To all intents and purposes, it was a new action. The mere fact that it was incorrectly designated as an “amended petition” is not at all controlling. In the last petition facts were alleged showing that a transcript of the judgment in Douglas county, not only upon the temporary
It is next urged by the defendants that the petition fails to state a cause of action, because it is not alleged that execution was issued upon the judgment and returned nulla bona. We think the objection thus sought to be raised by the defendants is fully answered against defendants’ contention in State Bank of Ceresco v. Belk, 68 Neb. 517. In that case, it is held: “There are two classes of creditors’ bills, one to reach the equitable assets or property of the debtor on which an execution at law cannot be levied; the other in aid of an execution at law, as to set aside an incumbrance or a transfer of property made to defraud creditors. In the first class of cases the creditor must allege and show that he has exhausted his remedy at law, while in the second it is sufficient to show that his claim has been reduced to judgment and'docketed in the county where the land lies which he seeks to subject to the payment of his claim. The equity court in such case is merely lending its assistance to the legal tribunal to remove a fraudulent obstruction interposed to the execution of its writ.” In the course of the opinion it is said: “In the latter class of cases, the prevailing doctrine is that it is not necessary to allege that an execution has been returned unsatisfied, or that the debtor has no other property out of which the judgment can be satisfied; for that is not the ground upon which the court of equity assumes to grant relief in such cases, but upon the theory that the fraudulent conveyance is an obstruction which prevents the creditor’s lien from being efficiently enforced upon the property. As to the creditor, the conveyance is void, and he has a right to have himself placed* in the same position as if it had not been made. The fact that other property has been retained by the debtor may be evidence that the conveyance is not fraudulent, but, if the grantee’s title be tainted with frauds he has no right to say that all other means to satisfy the debt shall be exhausted before he shall be disturbed.” (Citing cases.)
With respect to the mortgage given to the attorneys, Sheppard and Marconnit, it is undisputed that the mortgage was given in payment of services at that time performed, and services anticipated to be rendered in the present action. The fees for services in prior actions, while not stated, could not have been very large. In Farmers & Merchants Nat. Bank v. Mosher, 63 Neb. 130, it was held: “An insolvent debtor has the right to employ attorneys to defend his estate and himself, and to transfer his property in payment of such contemplated services, provided it is done in good faith and the property transferred does not exceed a reasonable fee for the service which might be reasonably anticipated.” It is difficult to determine what was exactly in the minds of the parties with reference to future litigation. It is shown, however, that the attorneys appeared twice in the supreme court in the divorce action, twice in the district court and in this court in the action to set aside the conveyances in Keith county, and that they made eight or ten trips from Omaha to Ogallala in the necessary preparation and trial of the cases. Upon the record made upon this phase of the case, we are led to conclude that the mortgage was given in good faith, and that the amount thereof did not exceed a reasonable fee for services which might be reasonably anticipated.
Other questions are presented in the record, which we have considered, but which we do not deem necessary to discuss. The main questions have been considered.
The judgment of the district court setting aside the deed from Perry J. Thies to Anna V. Thies is sustained. That part of the judgment setting aside the mortgage from Perry J. Thies to Charles C. Sheppard and Fred P. Marconnit is reversed, and the cause remanded, with directions to enter judgment in accordance with this opinion.
Affirmed in part, and reversed in part, with directions.