Genovese Coal & Mason's Material Co. v. River Bend Builders, Inc.

• Decision Date: 16 December 1958
• Citation: 146 Conn. 48,147 A.2d 193
• Parties: GENOVESE COAL AND MASON'S MATERIAL COMPANY v. RIVER BEND BUILDERS, Inc., et al. Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court

Page 193

147 A.2d 193

146 Conn. 48

GENOVESE COAL AND MASON'S MATERIAL COMPANY v. RIVER BEND BUILDERS, Inc., et al.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

Argued May 7, 1958.

Decided June 24, 1958.

Reargued Nov. 6, 1958.

Decided Dec. 16, 1958.

Morgan P. Ames, Stamford, for appellant (plaintiff).

Monroe Silverman and Sydney C. Kweskin, Stamford, for appellees (defendants).

Before DALY, C. J., and BALDWIN, KING, MURPHY and MELLITZ, JJ.

BALDWIN, Associate Justice.

The plaintiff brought this action against the named defendant, which is a corporation engaged in building houses, Chester L. Syska, president of the corporation, and his wife, Agnes B. Syska. The complaint was in two counts. The first count contained, in substance, the following allegations: In September, 1953, the plaintiff instituted an action against the corporation, Chester E. Syska and Chester L. Syska to recover for materials sold and delivered to the corporation and to recover on a note of the corporation. In May, 1954, the plaintiff had a judgment against the corporation for $3823.82 for the materials and, in July, 1955, a judgment for $1014.15 on the note. Execution issued and was returned unsatisfied. The corporation, with intent to defraud the plaintiff, in the latter part of 1952 transferred certain of the materials, of the value of $1600, to Chester L. Syska, who used them in constructing a house for himself. The transfer was without consideration and was accepted by Chester L. Syska with the purpose and intent on his part of defrauding the plaintiff.

The allegations of the first count were incorporated, by reference, in a second count, which alleged, as well, that Chester L. Syska, in furtherance of the fraud, in February, 1955, quitclaimed to his wife, Agnes B. Syska, without consideration, the property in which the materials had been used and that she accepted the conveyance with knowledge of the fraud and in furtherance of it. The plaintiff claimed judgment for damages against all the defendants and that the transfer of the materials and the conveyance of the property be set aside as fraudulent.

The trial court found the following facts, which are not in dispute: The plaintiff sold building materials in 1952 to the defendant corporation, which was in the business of constructing dwelling houses in Stamford and Darien. Besides Chester L. Syska, president, its officers were his father, Chester E. Syska, secretary, and Harry Carr, treasurer. These three also controlled three other corporations, Long View Park, Inc., Chester Park, Inc., and River Bend Associates. The building materials sold by the plaintiff to the defendant corporation were delivered during 1952 to the site of a house which Chester L. Syska was building for himself upon a lot in Stamford which he had purchased on May 29, 1952, from Revonah, Inc. The materials were charged to the defendant corporation. The plaintiff carried no account in the name of Chester L. Syska and did not bill him personally for the materials. In September, 1953, the plaintiff sued the corporation to recover for materials furnished to it, including those used in the construction of Syska's house. Judgment was rendered against the corporation in May, 1954, for the materials, and in July, 1955, upon the note. Execution on the first judgment was issued and was returned unsatisfied in January, 1955. In February, 1955, Syska quitclaimed the house which he had built on the lot purchased from Revonah, Inc., to his wife, Agnes B. Syska, without consideration, as a gift.

The plaintiff could, upon its complaint, offer evidence to prove a fraudulent transfer of the materials and a fraudulent conveyance of the real estate on one or both of two theories: that the transfer of the materials and the conveyance were made with the actual intent of defrauding the plaintiff of payment, an intent in which all the parties participated; or that they were made without consideration and rendered the corporation and Chester L. Syska insolvent. Boiselle v. Rogoff, 126 Conn. 635, 643, 13 A.2d 753; Dombron v. Rogozinski, 120 Conn. 245, 247, 180 A. 453; Peerless Mfg. Co. v. Goehring, 131 Conn. 93, 95, 38 A.2d 5. Among the several claims of error pressed by the plaintiff there is one in a finding of fact which, if valid, vitiates the judgment as to the corporation and Chester L. Syska. The trial court found that Syska had paid the corporation $3400 'in full for all labor and material supplied to him' by the corporation. The plaintiff vigorously attacks this finding as one unsupported by the evidence.

Syska did not testify at the trial. In an examination of the corporation as a judgment debtor on May 9, 1955, he was questioned at length, and the transcript of this examination was admitted as a full exhibit in the trial of this case. He testified on this examination that the materials which were furnished by the plaintiff and were used in building his house came from Chester Park, Inc., another corporation controlled by him, his father and Harry Carr, and were billed by the plaintiff to Chester Park, Inc., and not to the defendant corporation. Ledger sheets which purported to be records of the defendant corporation showed one entry of money received by it under date of August 27, 1952, in the sum of $3000, and another under...