Allen v. Berry

• Decision Date: 31 March 1872
• Citation: Allen v. Berry, 50 Mo. 90 (Mo. 1872)
• Parties: HENRY C. ALLEN, Respondent, v. ISAAC L. BERRY et al., Appellants.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

50 Mo. 90

HENRY C. ALLEN, Respondent,

v.ISAAC L. BERRY et al., Appellants.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

March Term, 1872.

Appeal from St. Louis Circuit Court.

Sharp & Broadhead, for appellants.

Hill & Jewett, for respondent.

ADAMS, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.

This was a suit instituted in the Franklin Circuit Court, and brought to the St. Louis Circuit Court by change of venue, to set aside as fraudulent and void as to this plaintiff certain deeds of conveyance of lands in Franklin county, made by the defendant Berry to his co-defendant, Jones. Among the pieces of property so conveyed was a lot and house known as the Hamilton house, on which there was a mortgage to the county at the time the alleged fraudulent deeds were made. After this Hamilton house was conveyed to Jones, the evidence shows that he put improvements on it to the amount of some $1,200 or $1,500. The plaintiff was a creditor of Berry and recovered judgments against him, and under execution on these judgments bought the Hamilton house and the other property in 1860. The defendant Jones, however, held possession of the Hamilton house up to 1864, for four years, and the rents and profits were proven to be worth $100 per annum. The mortgage of the county was at this time foreclosed by sale, and this property brought $2,400, which, after payment of the county debt of some $1,700, went into Jones' hands. The evidence also shows that Berry had put notes into Jones' hands to pay the county mortgage, but he did not so appropriate them.

The evidence clearly conduces to show that the conveyance by Berry to Jones was made to defraud his creditors, and that Jones was...