McMunnigal v. Aylor

• Decision Date: 14 May 1907
• Citation: 102 S.W. 486,204 Mo. 19
• Parties: McMUNNIGAL v. AYLOR et al.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

102 S.W. 486

204 Mo. 19

McMUNNIGAL v. AYLOR et al.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

May 14, 1907.

1. FRAUDULENT CONVEYANCES — CONVEYANCE BY HUSBAND TO WIFE.

A conveyance from a husband to his wife will not be set aside as fraudulent, where the husband was solvent at the time, and the provision made for his wife was reasonable, even to existing creditors.

2. SAME—ELEMENTS OF FRAUD—INSOLVENCY.

If the donor, at the time of the gift, was in prosperous circumstances, and possessed ample means to pay his debts, and the gift was a reasonable one according for the purpose for which it was made, it is valid and will not be vitiated by the subsequent insolvency of the donor, not produced by causes existing at the time of the conveyance.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Jasper County; Hugh Dabbs, Judge.

Suit by Mattie A. McMunnigal against J. W. Aylor and others. From a decree in favor of plaintiff, defendants appeal. Affirmed.

Frank L. Forlow, for appellants. Thomas & Hackney, for respondent.

GANTT, J.

This was a suit in the circuit court of Jasper county to obtain a perpetual injunction against J. W. Aylor, the plaintiff in the judgment and the sheriff in an execution under said judgment, from selling two certain lots in Webb City, on the ground that such sale would cause a cloud upon the title of the plaintiff in and to said lots, and hinder and prevent her from selling and disposing of the same, and against P. H. McMunnigal, the husband of the plaintiff, to have the legal title in and to said lots divested out of said husband and vested in the plaintiff, and to adjudge and decree that he had no interest in said premises subject to levy and sale under said execution. In substance, the petition states that on the 6th day of November, 1889, the plaintiff and P. H. McMunnigal were husband and wife, and that plaintiff purchased with her separate money and means, for the sum of $500, lots 73 and 74 in Byers & Ball's addition to Webb City; that the defendant P. H. McMunnigal transacted the business for the plaintiff in the purchase of said property, and, without the knowledge and consent of plaintiff, took the deeds to said lots in his own name, and afterwards on the 9th of November, 1894, the defendant P. H. McMunnigal received a large amount of money, the separate property of plaintiff, to wit, $1,500; that after the purchasing of said lots on November 6, 1889, there was erected thereon a dwelling house with the money and means of this plaintiff, and she and her husband took possession thereof and occupied the same as their homestead; that the deed to the real estate, in the name of the defendant P. H. McMunnigal, was recorded in the recorder's office in Jasper county in 1889. Plaintiff states that on the 9th of November, 1894, her husband was wholly solvent, and owned and held a large amount of property and ready money, and was not indebted to any person excepting this plaintiff, and that the money and property owned by said P. H. McMunnigal over and above the amount he owed plaintiff, and his exemptions, amounted to the sum of thousands of dollars; that on the 9th of November, 1894, and while plaintiff and defendant were occupying the said real estate, the said P. H. McMunnigal, in payment of the moneys which plaintiff had furnished to purchase said lots, and the moneys which he owed plaintiff, and further as a provision for the future support and maintenance of the plaintiff as his wife, had executed and delivered to this plaintiff a warranty deed, duly executed and acknowledged, by which he conveyed said lots directly to plaintiff without the interposition of the third party, and that since said date her husband has never had any beneficiary of equitable interest in said real estate, but the same was, and ever since has been, and now is, the separate property of plaintiff. Plaintiff further states that, in the year 1895, the defendant Aylor recovered in the circuit court of Jasper county, at Joplin, a judgment for six hundred and some dollars against defendant P. H. McMunnigal, which, as far as plaintiff is informed and believes, remains in full force and effect, and plaintiff avers that the cause of action upon which said judgment was obtained did not accrue until long after the execution and delivery to plaintiff by the said P. H. McMunnigal and the recording of the aforesaid deed. Plaintiff states that afterwards, to wit, in 19—, the defendant Aylor caused an execution to be issued on the said judgment against P. H. McMunnigal, and caused the same to be levied on the said lots 73 and 74 in Webb City as the property of the defendant P. H. McMunnigal, and was, at the institution of this suit, and still is, insisting, urging, and requiring the sheriff of Jasper county to sell the same as the property of the said defendant P. H. McMunnigal, and, unless he is restrained therefrom by this court, said levy and sale which may be made thereunder will cast a cloud upon the title of plaintiff, and will hinder and prevent her from selling and disposing of the same, wherefore she prays the court to adjudge and determine that plaintiff is the equitable owner in fee simple of the said real estate, and that her said husband has no right, title, or interest in said premises subject to sale or execution, and that the court divest the legal title out of the said P. H. McMunnigal and vest the same in plaintiff, and adjudge and decree that her said husband has no interest in said premises subject to levy and sale under execution issued on said judgment in favor of said defendant J. W. Aylor, and that said defendant Aylor be perpetually enjoined and restrained from levying upon and selling said premises or causing the same to be done under said execution, or under any execution hereafter to be issued on said judgment, and for all proper relief. The defendant for answer denied each and every allegation in the petition except as herein afterwards specifically admitted. Defendant admitted that on the 6th of November, 1889, plaintiff and defendant P. H. McMunnigal were husband and wife, and the lots 73 and 74, in Byers & Ball's addition to Webb City, were purchased by P. H. McMunnigal, and the deeds taken in his name, and that on the 25th day of June, 1895, defendant obtained a judgment against the defendant P. H. McMunnigal, in the circuit court of Jasper county, for the sum of $697, which with interest and costs remains unreversed and in full force and effect. Admits that he caused an execution to be issued on said judgment, and directed and caused a levy to be made upon the lots described in the petition, and requested the sheriff to sell said premises as the property of defendant P. H. McMunnigal. Further answering, defendant states that said lots were purchased with the money and means of the defendant McMunnigal, and that the debt for which the judgment was entered in favor of defendant Aylor was due from the said defendant P. H. McMunnigal, as a part of the purchase price of lot 13, in Webb's First addition to Webb City, which said property was traded in part for lots 73 and 74, in Byers & Ball's addition; that the plaintiff and P. H. McMunnigal lived upon lot 13, in Webb's addition. To this answer plaintiff filed a reply denying each and every allegation, and prayed judgment as in her petition.

Upon a trial in the circuit court, the court rendered judgment for the plaintiff as prayed in her petition, and, after unsuccessful motions for a new trial and in arrest of judgment, the...