Burrows v. Gibson

• Decision Date: 30 October 1879
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court
• Parties: MARGARET BURROWS v. JOHN T. GIBSON and others.

3 N.W. 293

42 Mich. 121

MARGARET BURROWS v. JOHN T. GIBSON and others.

Supreme Court of Michigan

October 30, 1879

The certificate placed on file upon an attempted levy upon certain real estate described the land as lot 7 of the subdivision of lots 12, 13 and 14 of the Labrosse and Baker farms, so called, in the city of Detroit. The property sought to be reached was lot 7 of John Gibson's subdivision of lots 12, 13, 14 and 18 of the Labrosse and Baker farms situated on the south side of Pine street, between Sixth and Seventh streets, according to the recorded plat of the same in the register's office of Wayne county. Held, that the description in the levy was insufficient to charge the public with constructive notice of the levy intended.

Appeal from superior court of Detroit.

Stewart & Galloway, for complainant.

Alex D Fowler, for defendants.

GRAVES J.

This is an appeal in chancery by complainant from a determination by the superior court of Detroit. The main facts alleged in the bill, so far as now material, are substantially as follows:

On the ninth of January, 1878, complainant recovered udgment in the superior court against the defendant John T Gibson for $262.75, and $12 costs; that just after the report in complainant's favor had been filed by referees to whom the case had been referred, and on January 3d, the debtor John T. Gibson, deeded to his wife, the defendant Mary, lot 7 of the subdivision of lots 12, 13 and 14 of the Labrosse and Baker farms, in the city of Detroit, then owned and occupied by him, without consideration and with intent to defraud complainant; that on the twenty-eighth of May, 1878, complainant caused an execution on said judgment to be levied on said lot 7, and also on several other parcels, and on the same day procured the levy to be filed in the office of the register of deeds for Wayne county; that the parcels levied on apart from lot 7 are of small value, and for reasons stated not available for anything beyond a trifling amount; that on the thirty-first of May, and three days after filing of the levy, the defendant Mary E. Gibson, at the instance and in the interest of her husband, the defendant John T., deeded said lot 7 to the defendant Elizabeth D. Knight, a resident of Cape Vincent, in Jefferson county, in the state of New York, for $2,500, and for $950 thereof took back a mortgage on the lot; and that on the third day of June Mrs. Gibson transferred the mortgage to the defendant William H. Gibson, a brother of John T., and that the mortgage stands of record in the name of said William H. Gibson; that William H. Gibson was cognizant of the levy on lot 7, and of the fraudulent purpose of said John T. and his wife to prevent complainant from gaining anything by the levy.

The bill charges the defendants with fraudulent intent, and avers that they respectively had notice of complainant's equities, and the court is asked to set aside the deed from John T. to his wife, and that lot 7 may be held subject to the levy and sold under it, and that Elizabeth Knight and defendant William H. Gibson may be enjoined from transferring, encumbering, or otherwise disposing of said lot, or of the mortgage, until the further order of the court.

The defendant William H. Gibson pleaded that he was a bona fide purchaser of the mortgage, and added a ...