First Nat. Bank of Jefferson City v. Link
| Decision Date | 01 July 1925 |
| Docket Number | 24752 |
| Citation | 275 S.W. 936 |
| Parties | FIRST NAT. BANK OF JEFFERSON CITY v. LINK et al |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Rehearing Denied August 1, 1925.
Motion to Transfer to Court in Banc Overruled October 9, 1925.
Ira H Lohman, of Jefferson City, and Baker & Baker, of Fulton, for appellant.
N. T Cave and D. M. Cuthbertson, both of Fulton, and McBaine & Clark and Paul M. Peterson, all of Columbia, for respondents.
Statement
The plaintiff instituted this suit in the circuit court of Callaway county against the defendants to set aside and cancel a certain deed of trust executed by J. B. Link to his wife, Hattie E. Link, for the alleged reason that said deed was executed for the purpose of defrauding and delaying his creditors, and especially the plaintiff.
The trial was before Hon. David Harris, judge, which resulted in the finding and decree for the defendant, and, after moving unsuccessfully for a new trial, the plaintiff duly appealed the cause to this court.
The pleadings are unchallenged, and a statement of the facts of the case has been made by counsel for each of the parties, and each of which are reasonably fair, but that of counsel for defendants is somewhat fuller, and goes more into detail, and for this reason alone I adopt the latter as the statement of this court as the facts of the case. The facts are substantially as follows:
This suit was instituted in the circuit court of Callaway county, Mo., on the 2d day of June, 1922, by the appellant herein, to set aside a deed of trust made by J. B. Link to his wife, Hattie E. Link, on the 28th day of April, 1922, to secure the payment of a note, from J. B. Link to his wife, Hattie E. Link, of the same date, for $ 3,905.
Hattie E. Link was the wife of J. B. Link. They were married in 1887, and never had any living children. The deed or trust in question covers the east part of the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter, and the east half of the southwest quarter of the northwest quarter of section 29, township 46, range 10, in Callaway county, Mo. The deed of trust was to W. Ed. Jameson, as trustee, to the use of Hattie E. Link, to secure the note aforesaid.
The appellant seeks to have the deed of trust set aside on the ground that it is in fraud of the creditors of J. B. Link, and especially the appellant bank, and was voluntarily executed, and was without consideration, and made for the purpose of hindering, delaying, and defrauding the creditors of the said J. B. Link.
The case was tried before Hon. David H. Harris, judge of the circuit court of Callaway county. Mo., on the 30th day of September, 1922. The trial court found that the deed of trust aforesaid was not fraudulent and void, but was given to secure a valid and legal note for $ 3,905 to Hattie E. Link, and the court declared said deed of trust a lien on the real estate therein, and dismissed plaintiff's bill.
After the overruling of motion for new trial the appellant, the First National Bank of Jefferson City, perfected this appeal to this court. The appellant herein also filed a suit in the circuit court of Callaway county, Mo., to set aside the deeds from J. B. Link to Tate W. Dulle, and from Tate W. Dulle and Viola F. Dulle to Hattie E. Link, executed on the 6th day of May, 1922. The circuit court of Callaway county, Mo., set aside this deed by its decree, and that case is here on appeal under the style of First National Bank of Jefferson City, respondent, v. J. B. Link, Hattie E. Link, wife of J. B. Link, Tate W. Dulle, and Viola F. Dulle, appellants, No. 24753.
The evidence was substantially as follows:
On January 9, 1922, J. B. Link signed a note with F. O. Link to the First National Bank of Jefferson City for $ 6,000. J. B. Link was accommodation signer with F. O. Link, who obtained the money on the note from plaintiff bank.
At the time J. B. Link signed the note to the bank he made a financial statement listing his assets at $ 22,500 and his liabilities at $ 9,000. F. O. Link was a farmer of New Bloomfield, Callaway county, and is a nephew of J. B. Link. The testimony indicates that F. O. Link borrowed money from various sources and mortgaged live stock to secure the same. He gave a mortgage on live stock to secure the note signed by himself and his uncle in January, 1922. Later, F. O. Link became insolvent, and when his creditors sought the property covered by the chattel mortgages it was found that some of it had been mortgaged more than once, and he had listed his live stock at more than he really had.
Appellant herein demanded payment of J. B. Link and on the 29th day of April, 1922, instituted suit against him in the circuit court of Callaway county, Mo., for the balance due on the $ 6,000 note of January 9, 1922. Judgment was duly obtained upon this note on May 22, 1922, for $ 5,246.50. Execution was issued on this judgment on the 1st day of June, 1922, and returned nulla bona the 30th day of September, 1922, the same day upon which the judgment was entered in this case. At the time J. B. Link signed the $ 6,000 note to the bank, there was a school fund mortgage on the lands involved here to Callaway county, dated the 2lth day of March, 1912, to secure $ 7,000. He also owed his niece, Alice Link, the sum of $ 3,000, and the Exchange Bank of Jefferson City the sum of $ 1,075. In addition to the above indebtedness J. B. Link had borrowed from his wife, Hattie Link, on his promissory note, dated the 6th day of July, 1900, the sum of $ 152.42, and $ 937.50 upon his note dated November 16, 1899. On March 23, 1910, the two notes aforesaid, aggregating $ 1,089.98, were renewed. The interest was figured up to that date, and a new note made by J. B. Link to Hat tie Link in the sum of $ 2,000.
After the first two notes were given, Mrs. Link became seriously ill, and without the knowledge of her husband and for the purpose of preventing her relatives claiming any interest in the notes in case of his death, tore the signatures from these first two notes. After she recovered the new $ 2,000 note was taken.
On April 28, 1922, the $ 2,000 note to Hattie E. Link of March 23, 1910, figured at $ 3,905, and was renewed on that day for that amount.
In addition to the above sums of money loaned by Hattie E. Link to J. B. Link, J. B. Link obtained from his wife $ 1,016.41 that was not covered by note. Mrs. Link acquired the money turned over to her husband from her father's and mother's estates, and from the estates of two uncles. She testified that all of the money received from these sources was turned over to J. B. Link; that the money received from her father's and mother's estates amounted to $ 1,700 or $ 1,800; and that from her uncles Joseph Crow's and Joel Gray's estate she received $ 357. Admissions were made into the record as to the exact amount received from these sources by Mrs. Link. These admissions show that Mrs. Hattie E. Link received money as follows:
March 31, 1887.
R. H. Crow estate
$ 372 56
Received on
supplemental final
settlement
April 14, 1888.
From partition of
R. H. Crow real
estate
556 40
Total received from
R. H. Crow estate
(father)
$ 1,146 91
June 13, 1900.
Ditto
450 00
Total
602 48
In 1917.
Received from
estate of J. R.
Crow, an uncle
$ 225 26
In 1914.
Received from Joel
Gray estate, an
uncle
130 05
Total from estates
of two uncles
355 31
Total money received by
inheritance
$ 2,104 70
Total for which notes were
given by J. B. Link
1,089 98
Money for which no note
was given
Before the suit was filed on the J. B. and F. O. Link note, and on the 27th day of April, 1922, J. B. Link and his wife, Hattie E. Link, gave a second mortgage on the real estate in question to secure indebtedness to Alice J. Link. This indebtedness represented money that J. B. Link had borrowed from Alice Link, and for which he had given his note on the 16th day of May, 1921, at the time he made settlement with the probate court as guardian of Alice Link. When he made the settlement he owed her $ 2,900, and that amount of money he borrowed from her after the settlement was made. It amounted to $ 3,000 on the date that he gave the second deed of trust on the land. On the same day, to wit, the 27th day of April 1922, J. B. Link and his wife gave a third deed of trust upon the lands aforesaid to secure a note for $ 1,075 to the Exchange Bank of Jefferson City. This represented J. B. Link's indebtedness to that bank, with which he had been doing business for many years. On the 28th day of April, 1922, the $ 2,000 note that J. B. Link had given to his wife, dated March 23, 1910, was figured to date, and a new note was given for $ 3,905, and a fourth deed of trust executed by J. B. Link to W. Ed. Jameson, trustee, to the use of Hattie E. Link, to secure said note. All these deeds of trust covered the lands involved here.
After the giving of the above deeds of trust, J. B. Link and his wife figured up the amount of J. B. Link's indebtedness to his wife over and above the note of March 23, 1910, and which was renewed on April 28, 1922, and ascertained that the amount of the same ran in excess of $ 1,000. The actual amount of it, as the above table shows, was $ 1,016.41. This sum allows nothing for the accumulation of interest on the indebtedness. When it was ascertained that there was additional indebtedness of the husband to the wife for $ 1,016.41 (not figuring accumulated interest), J. B. Link, for the purpose of protecting his wife on this indebtedness conveyed the farm in question to Tate W. Dulle, who, in turn, joined by his wife, Viola Dulle, conveyed the same to Hattie E. Link. These last...
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