Bangs v. Edwards

• Decision Date: 13 December 1889
• Citation: 6 So. 764,88 Ala. 382
• Parties: BANGS ET AL. v. EDWARDS ET UX.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

6 So. 764

88 Ala. 382

BANGS ET AL. v. EDWARDS ET UX.

Supreme Court of Alabama

December 13, 1889

Appeal from chancery court, Chambers county; MCSPADDEN, Chancellor.

N.H. Denson, for appellants.

W J. Samford, for appellees.

CLOPTON J.

The bill, which is filed by appellants as creditors of George W Edwards, proceeds on the theory that the land which they seek to subject to the payment of their demand was purchased by him, and paid for with his individual means, and that, having thereafter become embarrassed, he caused it to be conveyed to his wife for the purpose of defrauding his creditors. The answers deny the allegations of the bill as to the purchase and the charges of fraud. They aver that the land was purchased by Mrs. Edwards, and that the consideration was paid with her separate funds. The cause was submitted by complainants on the bill, answers and note of Edwards attached as an exhibit to the bill, and by defendants on the answers, and their own depositions. No other witnesses were examined. The bill alleges that the purchase was made by Edwards in 1886, on a credit, and that the conveyance was executed October 27, 1887.

The conveyance was made by the vendors to Mrs. Edwards, and recites as its consideration the sum of $700 paid by her to the grantors. If the allegations of the bill be true, that Edwards paid for the land, and secured a deed to be made in the name of his wife after the debt of complainants was contracted, it offends their rights, and as to its validity and consequence does not differ from a conveyance directly from him to his wife. It is also conceded that, as Mrs Edwards claims ownership by a purchase during coverture, the recital in the conveyance of the payment of a valuable consideration by her is insufficient to support the deed in a contest between her and the existing creditors of her husband. In such case, the onus is on her to clearly and fully prove that she paid for the property with her separate funds. The sufficiency of the evidence by defendants to establish these essential facts we shall determine by these principles.

The facts on which Mrs. Edwards founds her claim of ownership may be summarized as follows: (1) The land was purchased October 1, 1886, from Atkinson, Reed & Co., by Mrs. Edwards in her own name, at the price of $700, for which she gave, without her husband joining therein, two notes, of $350 each, one payable May 1, 1887, and the other a few months thereafter. (2) Prior to the purchase she let her husband, who was engaged in the mercantile business, have money to the amount of $700, to keep for her, with the understanding that she could get it whenever she wanted to buy a home or a tract of land. When the purchase was made it was understood that her husband would pay her notes for the purchase money, and that such payment should be in discharge of his liability. He paid the notes with goods from his store, Atkinson, Reed & Co. having agreed to accept goods in payment at cash prices. (3) Mrs. Edwards, with the assent of her husband, commenced in 1877 or 1878 to retain her earnings by her labor and economy, and continued to do so until 1885. The money thus accumulated and retained was deposited in her name with a banker, and with Atkinson, Reed & Co. All the money was subsequently loaned to the latter firm, and at some time thereafter was repaid by them. This was the money she gave her husband to keep for her.

By the common law, which is presumed, in the absence of proof, to prevail in...