205 Pa. 229 | Pa. | 1903
Opinion by
The complaint of John Gunn, the appellant, is that the jury were allowed to determine the character of the sale of the brickyard plant by his father, Charles B. Gunn, to Lemuel A. White, the appellee. He insists it was a fraud in fact as well as in law, and that the court should have sustained each of these positions and directed a finding in his favor. The learned trial judge was clearly of the opinion that the sale was in fact fraudulent, and, incautiously, perhaps, though of this the ap
The appellee testified that, on February 26, 1900, a year before the appellant obtained a decree against Charles B. Gunn, he had purchased the personal property which was the subject of the feigned issue; that a day or two before he purchased it Charles B. Gunn came to his office and told him he was “ hard up ” and would like to have some money. A receipt of Charles B. Gunn to the appellee was produced, acknowledging the latter’s check for flOO and his note for $2,400, payable four months after date, in payment of the purchase money for the property purchased, which the appellee says he paid. Evidence was submitted that the price paid for the property was a fair one. In the face of this the good faith of the transaction between the vendor and vendee was for the jury alone, no matter how persuasively the learned counsel for the appellant contend that other features of the case, to which we need not call attention, made it the duty of the court to declare the transfer a fraud in fact.
The jury having found that the sale was in fact honest, was it constructively fraudulent ? When we said in Keystone
On the cross-examination of the plaintiff and his witnesses, and from the testimony offered by the defendants, it is true, facts were developed which fully warranted the contention that there ought to have been a finding that there had not been a sufficient change of possession ; on the other hand, if the jury believed what was offered by the plaintiff to prove that he had taken and retained possession of the property he had purchased, their verdict was fairly for him and cannot be disturbed. The property purchased was a brick plant, including brick machinery, two engines and boilers, drier, blower, five kilns, trucks and tracking, horses, carts, wagons, harness, shedding and other appliances which were upon the premises and needful in manufacturing. drying, burning and delivering 82,000 bricks per day. The vendee had an option to purchase the yard itself. He testified that, after he purchased the property, he took immediate possession of it; that he manufactured bricks, hauling clay from other grounds to the yard ; that, though he employed Charles JB. Gunn and his son, Frank, to manage the brickyard for him, he went there five days out of six to look after the business, and furnished the money to pay the hands ; that he built a sixth kiln on the premises; that lie advertised the plant for sale; that the insurance was taken out in his name. He further stated that three days after he purchased the property, and more than a year before John Gunn obtained his decree, he told the latter he had purchased it and offered to sell it to him for $8,000. This statement was admitted to be true by the appellant. Charles Horner, a witness called by the plaintiff, testified that he knew the brickyard had been sold to the appellant, who had taken possession of it in February, 1900, and some weeks had been in the yard ten or twelve times. Frank Gunn testified that the appellee had taken possession of the place and continued in possession until the trial of the feigned issue; that he was there looking after the business four or five days a week. John E. White, another witness, testified that his brother, the appellee, had taken possession of the plant and that he went up to look after the business for him from time to time and to see that things were going right. One of the witnesses called by the defendant testified that he had received