Smith v. Kenney
Smith v. Kenney
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
This, is a controversy growing out of the claim of a judgment creditor to levy execution on certain goods alleged to be covered by a deed of trust. A judgment was obtained by the complainant against John IT. Kenny, who had previously executed a chattel trust to one Munger to secure a debt which Kenny owed Aitken, Son & Co., of New York. The deed professes on its face to convey in trust the goods in Kenny’s store for the purpose of securing certain notes held by Aitken, Son & Co. It is made a point that by the terms of the deed the goods were to be left in the store for the-use of Kenny. The language of the deed on this subject is asfollows:
“The same being now in and upon those premises, house or messuage, known as 915 Pennsylvania avenue, northwest, in the city of Washington, District of Columbia, to have and'to hold the said goods and chattels and personal property, unto and to.the use of the said party of the second part, his executors, administrators and assigns, in and upon the trusts and for the uses following : In trust to suffer and permit the said party of the first part to retain possession of and use the said goods and chattels and personal property, until the same shall and may be required, as hereinafter provided.”
If this language were intended to permit Kenny, the grantor, to continue the business of selling and disposing of the goods as he had been doing heretofore, it would be a serious objection to the validity of the deed as to his creditors, But upon the whole it is not necessarily interpreted in that way, because the deed elsewhere provides that at any time thereafter the trustee may take immediate possession of the
Now, this was an arrangement calculated to deceive everybody. There was no such debt due by Kenny. The law was not intended to put it in the power of a failing debtor to get up an arrangement of this kind; to give a deed of trust and secure from'the creditor $400 out of the proceeds of the sale, to reimburse him for the relinquishment of his exemption. The whole transaction was a contrivance which the court cannot countenance. It is a secret contrivance calculated to
Reference
- Full Case Name
- William R. Smith v. John H. Kenney
- Status
- Published