Orman v. Lane

• Decision Date: 06 June 1901
• Citation: 30 So. 441,130 Ala. 305
• Parties: ORMAN ET AL. v. LANE.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

30 So. 441

130 Ala. 305

ORMAN ET AL. v. LANE.

Supreme Court of Alabama

June 6, 1901

Appeal from chancery court, Franklin county; William H. Simpson Chancellor.

Bill by Charles P. Lane against William A. Orman and others. Decree for plaintiff, and defendants appeal. Reversed.

It was averred in the bill that William A. Orman had been duly and regularly declared a bankrupt, and Charles P. Lane was named and qualified as the trustee of his estate, and in the schedule of his property, owned by him, in said bankruptcy proceedings, he had included no property or assets, while as a matter of fact he at that time owned an undivided one-half interest in a valuable leasehold estate; that subsequent to the time that he was declared bankrupt the said William A Orman and his co-tenant in the leasehold estate conveyed and transferred said leasehold estate to the defendant Morris Adler for the valuable consideration, to wit, $75,000; that at the time of this transfer and sale of the leasehold estate to Morris Adler the said Adler knew that William A. Orman was a bankrupt; that the sale and transfer by William A. Orman of his undivided interest in the leasehold estate purported to have been owned and conveyed to Adler by Kate W. Orman, the wife of William A. Orman; that the conveyance and sale of said leasehold estate was made in this way for the purpose of hindering and defrauding the creditors of said William A Orman and of complainant, as trustee in bankruptcy, and that this purpose and intention was participated in by said Morris Adler. It was then averred in the bill that with the money obtained by W. A. Orman from the sale of the leasehold estate he had purchased other properties, which were valuable, and which should be subjected to the payment of his creditors that in each of these conveyances the said William A. Orman had the property conveyed in the deed executed to his wife Kate W. Orman, for the purpose of defrauding his creditors that said William A. Orman purchased other properties in which he had the title to the conveyance made to one John T. Orman, trustee; that each of the conveyances of said property referred to in the bill was made for the benefit of William A. Orman, and was purchased with his money. It was further averred in the bill that there was other property owned by William A. Orman, all title to which purported to be in his wife, while as a matter of fact it belonged to him, and was subject to the payment of his creditors. It was then averred that all of the property so purchased by Orman inured, by reason of the bankruptcy proceedings, to the complainant, as trustee, and he was entitled to be invested with the title to all of said property. The prayer of the bill was that a transfer and sale of William A. Orman's undivided one-half interest in the leasehold estate to Morris Adler be set aside and annulled as a fraud upon Orman's creditors, and that the title to said one-half interest in the leasehold estate be invested in the complainant, as trustee in bankruptcy; and that the title to all of the property alleged to have been purchased by Orman, but which was deeded to his wife and other persons, be declared to invest in the complainant, as trustee in bankruptcy. To this bill each of the defendants filed a plea, which was as follows: "That a term of the district court of the United States for the Northern division of the Northern district of Alabama, which was held at Huntsville, Alabama, in the year 1900, at the spring term thereof, the said plaintiff, Chas. P. Lane, trustee of W. A. Orman, exhibited his bill of complaint in that honorable court against this defendant and the said Kate W. Orman and Morris Adler for an account of the moneys raised by the sale of the...