Gentry v. Field

• Decision Date: 16 February 1898
• Citation: 143 Mo. 399,45 S.W. 286
• Parties: GENTRY et al. v. FIELD et al.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

45 S.W. 286

143 Mo. 399

GENTRY et al. v. FIELD et al.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

February 16, 1898.

FRAUDULENT CONVEYANCES — EVIDENCE — PROBATE COURT — RECORDS — DECLARATIONS.

1. In an action to set aside a deed of decedent as in fraud of his creditors, records of the probate court, having jurisdiction of proceedings on claims against the estate (Rev. St. 1889, § 191), certified as provided by section 4881, are admissible to show that plaintiffs are judgment creditors of the estate, and that it is insolvent.

2. Creditors attacking a conveyance as fraudulent cannot complain that part of the consideration was a claim barred by limitations; yet where one conveys to his daughter all his real property in payment of such a claim and others held by her, to the exclusion of all his other creditors, it tends to show a purpose to defraud them.

3. One's statement that money sent him by his daughter was a gift, not having been made in her presence, is not admissible against her in a suit to set aside as fraudulent a conveyance by him to her; her claim being that such money was part of the consideration thereof.

4. Withholding a deed from record does not affect the question of its being fraudulent, the grantor not having thereby obtained credit.

5. A conveyance made in fraud of creditors is not purged by any subsequent act of the grantor.

6. Failure of a grantee to surrender notes, part of the consideration of the deed, the inclusion in the consideration of a note barred by the statute for 15 years, the fact that the property was worth twice the consideration, the insolvency of the grantor, and the fact that the grantee was his granddaughter, show that the conveyance was in fraud of creditors.

Appeal from circuit court, Boone county; Charles Martin, Special Judge.

Suit by N. T. Gentry, administrator of John M. Samuel, deceased, and others, against John E. Field and another. Judgment for plaintiffs. Defendants appeal. Affirmed.

Turner, Hinton & Turner, Henry B. Babb, and W. M. Williams, for appellants. Odon Guitar and N. T. Gentry, for respondents.

BURGESS, J.

This is a proceeding in equity by creditors of John Ellis, deceased, whose demands were allowed against his estate and classified by the probate court of Boone county before the beginning of this suit, for the purpose of having set aside and held for naught, as fraudulent as to his creditors, a certain warranty deed from him to his grandson John E. Field conveying 409 acres of land in said county. After the suit was instituted, Mrs. Amanda E. Field was made a party defendant. She entered her appearance, and adopted the pleadings of her son, John E. Field, as her own. Pending the suit in the circuit court, Mrs. Field died; and the cause was revived in the name of John E. Field, her executor, and also in the name of John E. Field and Lizzie D. H. Field, her only heirs at law, legatees, and devisees, all of whom entered their appearance, and adopted the pleadings of defendant John E. Field. The trial resulted in a finding and judgment for plaintiffs in accordance with the prayer of the petition, from which defendants appealed.

The petition alleges that no consideration passed for the land, and that it was conveyed by John Ellis, deceased, to John E. Field, for the purpose of hindering, delaying, and defrauding the creditors of said Ellis, of which John E. Field had full knowledge, and was a party to the fraud. The consideration expressed in the deed was $2,000, while the land was worth at the time of the conveyance about $7,000. It was, however, incumbered by judgments and county school fund mortgages aggregating from $2,600 to $2,700. This deed was executed on April 20, 1894, but was not recorded until July 2, 1894, which was after the death of the grantor. The land conveyed was the homestead of John Ellis, upon which he had resided for many years; but at the time the deed was executed he was at the home of his daughter Mrs. Amanda Field, in Denver, Colo. On the same day of the execution of the deed, John E. Field executed a declaration of trust in favor of his mother, Amanda Field, in which it is recited that in consideration of $2,000 received by John Ellis of Amanda E. Field, and divers other good and valuable considerations, said John Ellis, wishing to reimburse and compensate Amanda E. Field for said sum, had conveyed to him, John E. Field, the land, etc., involved in this litigation, in trust for her. This declaration of trust was kept a secret until the day of trial, when it was produced and read in evidence by defendants. By the deed of John Ellis, he conveyed all of his real estate to defendant John E. Field, for the use and benefit of his daughter Amanda. He was at the time the deed was executed of the advanced age of 89 years, and insolvent. Defendants knew at the time of the execution of this deed that Ellis was financially embarrassed. On the 28th day of April, 1894, John Ellis made his will, in which John E. Field was named as executor, and to whom he gave all of his personal property in trust to secure his creditors, and empowered him to make deeds. The will also provided that the remainder of his property after the payment of his debts should be held in trust by John E. Field for the testator's daughter Mrs. Field. To this will a codicil was added on May 12, 1894, in which he appointed W. C. Brooks, of Boone county, Mo., agent for his executor to transfer his personal property to his creditors according to directions which he gave him. On the same day (May 12, 1894) the testator executed a power of attorney to W. C. Brooks, conferring upon him the power to make deeds and perfect title to land sold by Ellis to Edmond Little, of Boone county, and to transfer a number of notes which he held on different persons to certain of his creditors. Ellis died on June 19, 1894. His personal property was little more than sufficient to pay the expenses attending the administration of his estate. At the time of the execution of the deed by John Ellis to John E. Field, Mrs. Field held two notes on her father, — one for $500, dated June 30, 1869, executed to Thomas M. Field, her husband, upon which there were no indorsements, and which John E. Field testified was transferred by his father to his mother in 1889. The other was for $1,000, payable to Amanda Field, dated April 4, 1888. John E. Field testified that these two notes, and a loan of $500 made by his mother to her father in December, 1890, made up the consideration expressed in the deed. Henry B. Babb, a witness for defendants, who prepared both the deed and the declaration of trust, testified that, in addition to the expressed consideration of $2,000 in the deed, Mrs. Field assumed and agreed to pay a debt owing by her father to John Conley for $730, one to Boone county for $240, and one to Tip Bass for $400. But neither one of these creditors knew anything about the assumption by Mrs. Field of their debt until the declaration of trust was introduced in evidence at the trial, and thereafter...