United States v. Wilson
| Decision Date | 26 April 1886 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES v. WILSON. Filed |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Asst. Atty. Gen. Maury, for appellant.
No appearance for appellee.
This is a bill in equity filed by the United States, June 6, 1878, to which were made defendants the widow, personal representatives, and heirs at law of E. L. Allen, deceased, and C. S. Wilson, the appellee, and John T. Gill. The material allegations of the bill are that in the year 1867 there was a firm of distillers in Lincoln county, Tennessee, under the name of Alexander & Co., of which E. L. Allen, since deceased, was a member; that the said firm became indebted to the United States in the sum of $3,057.16 for taxes and penalties, which were duly assessed on the July list for 1867; that failing to pay the same, as required by law, the proper collector of internal revenue, on January 21, 1876, issued a distress warrant for the collection of the same, which, there not being a sufficiency of goods and chattels of the firm or either of the partners, was, on January 22, 1876, levied on all the right, title, claim, and interest of the said E. L. Allen in and to certain real estate in said county of Lincoln, particularly described in the bill; that, pursuant to law, all proper notices having been previously given, the said premises were offered for sale at the court-house door, in the town of Fayetteville, on March 25, 1876, when said lots and parcels of land were offered separately at the minimum price placed on each, and no person offering to take them, or either of them, at said price, the same were purchased by the United States in accordance with the statutes in such cases made and provided; that no one appearing to redeem said lands within the time provided by law, on September 29, 1877, the collector of internal revenue then in office in said district conveyed to the United States, by deed, under and by virtue of said assessment, distress warrant, levy, and sale, all the interest in said lands of the said Allen, of which, at the time said taxes became due and were payable, it is averred the said Allen was owner in fee, holding the legal title thereto; that, nowithstanding said taxes were a lien on said lands from the time the same became due and payable, the said Allen and the said Wilson conspired and confederated to hinder, delay, and defraud the United States in the collection of said taxes, and, in pursuance of said conspiracy and confederacy, on January 14, 1876, the said Allen made a pretended sale and conveyance of said tracts of land by deed to the said Wilson; that the said deed purported on its face to be an absolute conveyance in fee, and was duly registered and recorded as such, but the same was not so in fact, there being a secret agreement between the parties thereto by which it was converted into an assignment with benefits reserved to said Allen, and was made for the purpose of hindering, delaying, and defrauding the United States in the collection of said taxes the said Allen being at the time insolvent, and the property conveyed being all his property subject to execution, and the conveyance to Wilson being, therefore, an assignment of all his effects by an insolvent debtor of the United States, within the meaning of section 3466 of the Revised Statutes of the United States; that since this assignment, and since the sale to the United States, the defendant Gill claims to have acquired an interest under Wilson in the said real estate. The prayer of the bill is that the conveyance by Allen to Wilson be declared fraudulent and void; that the paramount lien of the United States in said land for the said taxes be adjudged and declared; that the priority of the United States be maintained and decreed, and the pretended conveyance of Allen to Wilson be removed as a cloud upon their title, and account for rents and profits, and a writ of possession to put the complainant in possession, and for general relief. The defendants answered, denying the legality of the tax and its assessment, and the regularity of the...
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