70 Tenn. 627 | Tenn. | 1879
delivered the opinion of the court.
The allegations of the bill are, that on the 13th February, 1865, the complainant recovered a judgment for $829.35 and costs, against the defendant, A. S. Hudiburg, in the Circuit Court of Knox county, upon a note of which complainant was endorser for value. Four several executions issued on the judgment, to-wit: on the 18th April, 1865; 16th November, 1867; 19th March, 1868, and 31st March, 1871; that the net sum of $32.15 was realized by the sale of some land and paid on the judgment. The balance remained unpaid, the last execution having been returned nulla bona. That on the 28th of August, 1874, William Coffman conveyed to the defendant, Mrs. Leanah Hu-diburg, the wife of the defendant A. S. Hudiburg, in consideration of $3,500, a house and lot in Knoxville. The bill charges, upon information and belief, that the consideration of this conveyance was the money or means of the said A. S., and that the purchase was made by him but the title taken to his wife, to defraud the creditors of said A. S. Hudiburg. The prayer of the bill is for satisfaction of the complainant’s judgment, by a sale of the property referred to. In an amended bill, it is charged that Hudiburg and wife had conveyed the property to Thos. L. Williams, in trust to secure a debt of $1,000 to Mrs. Emily G. McCorkle, but the property was of value sufficient to satisfy both claims. The answers on oath are
It is argued that as none of the conveyances are attacked by the bill except the deed of Coffman to Mrs. Hudiburg, the other conveyances must be taken as free from fraud, and that it is sufficient to show that Mrs. Hudiburg purchased from Coffman with means derived from the sale of the other lot held by her under a deed valid, because not attacked. But we are of opinion, that as the defendant has undertaken to show how Mrs. Hudiburg became possessed of the means, if we can see from the entire history-of the transaction that it originated in fraud, it will not be allowed to stand, although the other conveyances are not attacked. As the defendants set up these other conveyances, they must show that they are valid and bona jicle. The money with which Mrs. Hudiburg made her first purchase in 1862 was in law the money of her husband, and it was therefore in the nature of a voluntary settlement upon the wife, and by presumption of law was fraudulent as to existing creditors, unless it be shown the husband had ample means besides for the payment of his debts.
It appears from the record of the Circuit Court, that the complainant commenced his action in 1859, three years before the conveyance was made. While