Hill v. Als et als.

• Decision Date: 05 December 1885
• Citation: 27 W.Va. 215
• Parties: Hill v. Als et als.
• Court: West Virginia Supreme Court

27 W.Va. 215

Hill

v.Als et als.

Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

Submitted September 11, 1885.

Decided December 5, 1885.

The provision of the statute authorizing appeals to this Court in chancery causes, wherein there is a decree "adjudicating the principles of the cause," authorizes such appeal, only where the decree appealed from adjudicates all the controversies between the parties raised by the pleadings or otherwise in the cause, (p. 219.)

2. Where the record in a cause shows that the pleadings present two or more controversies between the plaintiff and the different defendants, only one of which was passed upon by the circuit court, and the others left undecided, this Court will dismiss the appeal as having been iniprovidently awarded, (p. 219.)

Van Winkle $ Ambler for appellants. R. Heber Smith for appellee. Snyder, Judge:

At the September rules 1883, W. J. Hill exhibited his bill in the circuit court ot Wood county against Andy Als and his wife, Lena Als, and the Homestead Building Association and others, in which the plaintiff alleges that on October 14, 1879, he obtained a judgment against Andy Als for $939.05 upon a debt incurred in 1876; that in 1877 and prior thereto said Als owned a hotel in Parkersburg and carried on therein the business of hotel-keeping; that in June 1877 the said hotel-property was sold under a decree of court and purchased by W. H. Stahlman for the wife of Als, to which latter the property was subsequently conveyed by a commissioner of the court; that Als and wife lived together in the hotel, and that Als continued the hotel-business in the same property up to the time of tiling this bill; that the wife had no estate at the time ol her marriage or since; that the said property was paid for by Als, and the title had been conveyed to his wife tor the purpose ot hindering, delaying and defrauding his creditors, and that the same was liable for the payment of the plaintiff's judgment. The bill also alleges that after the conveyance of the legal title of said hotel-property to the wife of Als, she and her husband executed a trust-deed thereon to secure a debt of $1,200.00 to the Homestead Building Association, and charges that this trust-deed was made-for the purpose of defrauding the creditors of Als, and that of this the said Association bad full notice. The prayer is that the plaintiff's said judgment may be declared to be a lien on said hotel-property and the same maybe decreed to be sold to pay said judgment: that the said trust-deed to secure the Homestead Building Association from Als and wife may be decreed to be fraudulent as to the plaintiii, and for general relief, &c

Mrs. Als and the Building Association demurred to the bill and the court overruled the demurrers.

Subsequently Airs. Als died intestate, and the suit was revived against and in the names of her children as her heirs-atlaw. The said children as well as the said Andy Als and the Building Association answered the bill. All the answers deny that there was any fraud in the transactions and conveyances mentioned in the bill, or that the plaintiff has any lien or right to subject said hotel-property to the payment of his judgment.

The Building Association in its answrer avers that the trustdeed from Als and wife to secure it was for $1,200.00, loaned by it to Mrs. Als without any knowledge or notice of fraud; that said $1,200.00 was used to pay off notes given for the purchase ot said property, which operated thereon as a vendor's lien; that therefore, if for any reason said trust-deed should be deemed invalid, respondent is entitled to be subrogated to the vendor's lien which was discharged by the money furnished by it, &c

There were no depositions taken, and the cause coming on to be heard upon the bill, answers and exhibits, the court on December 22, 1884, decreed as follows:" Upon consideration whereof, the court is of opinion that the plaintiff is entitled to the relief prayed for in the bill against the defendants, Andy Als and the heirs-at-law of Lena Als, and that the agreement made between William H. Stahlman and Lena Als, dated February 15, 1878, the said deed from W. W. Van Winkle, special commissioner, to said Lena Als, dated February 12, 1881, are void as to the creditors of said Andy Als, and the real estate therein described is subject to the judgment of plaintiff mentioned in the bill, and that no proper decree can be rendered in this cause without reference to a commissioner. It is therefore adjudged, ordered and decreed that the cause be and the same is hereby referred to a...