Sugg v. Tillman
| Decision Date | 31 December 1852 |
| Citation | 32 Tenn. 208 |
| Parties | SUGG v. TILLMAN et al. |
| Court | Tennessee Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
On the 12th February, 1850, John Tillman conveyed to trustees, for the benefit of certain of his creditors, several tracts of land, seventeen negroes; and the deed proceeds to convey, thus: “all my stock of cattle, being about fifty head, eight head of horses, two mule colts, all my stock of hogs, being between sixty and seventy head, one ox-wagon, one ox-cart, one carryall, all my plantation tools of every description, one set of blacksmith's tools, including the bellows, all of my last year's crop of hemp, being about twenty thousand pounds, from sixty to seventy bushels of hemp seed, all my corn, fodder, hay, and oats, one hand spining-machine, about two thousand five hundred pounds of bacon, in my smoke-house, one hundred and twenty thousand pounds of salted pork, in Alabama, all my household and kitchen furniture and utensils of every description.” There was inserted in the deed a stipulation which authorized the trustees to take immediate possession of all the property conveyed, “and as soon as practicable after advertising,” etc., to sell the same; there was also inserted the reservation quoted in the opinion. The complainant, being a judgment creditor of Tillman, but not a beneficiary in the trust, filed his bill in the chancery court at Shelbyville, to set aside this conveyance. At the August term, 1852, Chancellor Ridley, presiding, there was a decree declaring the conveyance fraudulent and void.
E. Cooper and E. A. Keeble, for complainant, insisted that the conveyance was fraudulent and void because it conveyed a large amount of stock, etc., without identifying, in any manner, such portions as were to pass by the deed, and such as were to be reserved, and also because of the reservation itself, and cited 7 Humph. 191, 192;1 Ired. 490;5 Cow. 547;20 Johns. 449; Meigs, 328, 329; id. 583, 584; 10 Yerg. 151, 152.
Ready and Wisener, for respondents.
This bill is filed by the complainant, as a judgment creditor, for about $3,300, of John Tillman, to impeach and set aside for fraud a deed of trust made to his son Lewis, and M. B. W. Brown, as trustees for the benefit of a part of his creditors, on the 12th February, 1850.
Much amplitude is given to the case in the record and briefs, and great zeal and ingenuity displayed in the argument. But after considering of the whole case we feel satisfied to rest our decision upon one of the many questions made and appearing on the face of the deed.
After conveying all his land, negroes, stock, corn, fodder, bacon, pork, and farming, household, and kitchen utensils, and all his furniture, a reservation upon it is inserted in these words: “Reserving to myself, however, out of the aforesaid stock, farming utensils, provender, provisions, household and kitchen furniture (as all of my property of that description, as well as of every other description, is intended to be embraced by this conveyance), so much as I am by law allowed to retain free from execution.”
There is no legal proposition better settled than that an assignment in trust for the benefit of chosen creditors, which secures upon its face any benefit or advantage to the debtor who makes it, is void in law as...
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