Yates v. Adams

• Decision Date: 08 November 1898
• Parties: YATES v. ADAMS ET AL.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

24 So. 547

119 Ala. 243

YATES v. ADAMS ET AL.

Supreme Court of Alabama

November 8, 1898

Appeal from city court of Birmingham; W. W. Wilkerson, Judge.

The bill in this case was filed by the appellant, Sarah, Yates against the appellees, A. A. Adams, Carrie W. Adams, and James B. Adams, and sought to have set aside and declared void, as fraudulent, a conveyance of property by A. A. Adams the debtor of the complainant, to Carrie W. Adams, his wife and to have said property subjected to the payment of the complainant's claims against A. A. Adams. James B. Adams was made a party defendant to the bill, as mortgagee of the property in controversy. The facts of the case are sufficiently stated in the opinion. On the final submission of the cause, on the pleadings and proof, the chancellor decreed that the complainant was not entitled to the relief prayed for, and ordered the bill dismissed. From this decree the complainant appeals, and assigns the rendition thereof as error. Affirmed.

Head, J., dissenting.

Felix E. Blackburn, for appellant.

Cabaniss & Weakley, for appellees.

HEAD J.

The views of the other members of the court upon the validity of the claim of homestead asserted in this case being to the contrary of those of the writer, the following discussion of the question, against the validity of the claim, indicates the opinion of the writer only. The other members of the court hold that A. A. Adams was entitled to the exemption claimed, and such will be the decree of the court.

The case is a bill in equity to condemn proceeds of property alleged to have been fraudulently conveyed, in the possession of the alleged fraudulent grantee. A. A. Adams, being indebted to the complainant, and owing other debts, on May 26, 1890, conveyed to his wife, Carrie W. Adams, by deed, a lot of land on Thirteenth street, in Birmingham, Ala., which we owned. The consideration recited in the deed was $3,000 in hand paid. There was, in fact, no valuable consideration at all. The property was, at that time, subject to the payment of Adams' debts. It was not, and had never been, his homestead. In July following Adams and wife conveyed, by deed, one-half of this lot to James R. Adams, for the recited consideration of $2,250 in hand, and about the same time James R. Adams and wife conveyed, by deed, to said Carrie W Adams, another lot, located in another part of the city, known as "South Highlands," for the recited consideration of $2,500. In fact, however, these conveyances were, respectively, made in consideration of each other, operating an exchange of lots. To make up the difference between the estimated values of the two lots, as denoted by the considerations recited, A. A. Adams transferred to James B. a half interest he owned in some lots in Calera, valued at $250. Very shortly after this exchange, Mrs. Adams erected a dwelling house on the lot obtained by her, at a cost of some $1,800, the money being raised by selling the other half of the Thirteenth street lot for $800, and borrowing $1,000, which was secured by mortgage on the South Highlands lot. Upon completion of the house, in the latter part of 1890, she moved into it, as her home, and has since continuously occupied it as such, her husband living there with her. The bill seeks to condemn this lot (the South Highlands lot) as being the proceeds of the Thirteenth street property, voluntarily conveyed to Mrs. Adams, as aforesaid; and the only resistance offered to the relief sought is a claim of homestead exemption interposed by the husband, A. A. Adams, claiming that, by virtue of his occupation of it, with his wife, as his dwelling place, which commenced on the completion of the house, before this bill was filed, and the fact, as he alleged and proved, that the property was not, at the hearing, worth as much as $2,000, after deducting the amount of the mortgage incumbrance, the...