Hill ex rel. Giddens v. Meinhard
Hill ex rel. Giddens v. Meinhard
Opinion of the Court
The court below erred in sustaining the demurrer to-the amended bill of complaint. If the deed from the defendant John P. Hill to complainant, his wife, was-valid in equity, the language of the conveyance, given in the preceding statement of the facts, constituted the land her separate statutory property (Harwood vs. Root, 20 Fla. 940); and while it is necessary to allege-in a bill of this character the nature of the married woman’s estate in the property, i. e. whether it is her separate statutory property, or her equitable separate-estate (Storrs vs. Storrs, 23 Fla. 274, 2 South. Rep. 368), we think this was sufficiently done by making a copy of the deed conveying the property a part of, the-bill. As to the validity of the conveyance, this court, in the case of Waterman vs. Higgins, 28 Fla. 660, 10 South. Rep. 97, very fully considered the effect of a deed made directly by a husband to his wife; and it was there held that by the stringent rules of the common law a conveyance from a husband directly to his-wife, without the intervention of a trustee, .is void;, but courts of equity refuse to follow in all cases this, common law rule, that in equity tbe object to be accomplished and the considerations upon which such conveyances are made, will be considered, and if found good and meritorious, and free from imposition and fraud, will be sustained. In that case however, no
It was alleged in the bill and admitted by demurrer that the lot of land was purchased and improved with money belonging to complainant; that the title •to the property was taken in her husband’s name by mistake without complainant’s consent, and against ber wishes; that the money so used was derived by inheritance from the estate of her father who died in Missouri in 1853; that she received the money in 1879 and subsequently removed to Florida, and in 1884 and 1885 her husband with her money purchased and improved the property levied upon; that no other money was invested in the land except her own; that her husband conveyed the property to her August 25, 1886; acknowledged the deed before an officer September 4, 1886, and it was recorded in the clerk’s office of Hillsborough county on December 3, 1886. Where a husband purchases land with his wife’s money, takes the title in his own name, and subsequently conveys the land directly to the wife, such conveyance will invest her with an equitable title to the land. Crawford vs. Whitmore, 120 Mo. 144, 25 S. W. Rep. 365; Sims vs. Rickets, 35 Ind. 181, S. C. 9 Am. Rep. 679; Taylor vs. Duesterberg, Administrator, 109 Ind. 165, 9 N. E. Rep. 907.
The judgment under which it was sought to subject the land in this case was obtained November 7, 1887, nearly a year after the record of this conveyance. This being true, no presumption of fraud in the transaction can be indulged in favor of the judgment creditor; Wilder vs. Brooks, 10. Minn. 50, S. C. 88 Am. Dec. 49; Grant vs. Ward, 64 Maine, 239; Hussey vs. Castle, 41 Cal. 239.
The decree of' the Circuit Court is reversed, with directions to overrule the demurrer of Meinhard Bros. & Co. to the bill of complaint, and for such further proceedings as may be agreeable to chancery practice.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Julia S. Hill, by and Through Her Next Friend, Isbon S. Giddens v. Henry Meinhard, Isaac Meinhard, Samuel Meinhard and E. A. Weil, Doing Business Under the Firm Name and Style of Meinhard Bros. & Co., and John P. Hill
- Cited By
- 6 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. Where it appears from a deed to a married woman attached to and made a part of her bill of complaint that certain real estate described in the hill is granted, bargained, sold, conveyed and confirmed to such married woman and her heirs and assigns forever, to have and to hold said property with the appurtenances and every part thereof to said married woman and to her heirs and assigns forever, this is a sufficient allegation that such property is her separate statutory property in a bill seeking to enjoin the sale thereof under an execution against her husband. 2. Real estate conveyed by deed to a married woman direct, with words of transfer in the premises, -“grant, bargain, sell and convey and confirm unto the said party of the second part (the married woman), and to her heirs and assigns forever, all of the following piece,” and a habendum and tenendum clause “to haye and to hold the above mentioned and described premises, with the appurtenances and every part thereof, to the said party of the second part and to her heirs and assigns forever,” is the separate statutory property of such married woman. •3. By the stringent rules of common law a conveyance from a husband directly to his wife, without the intervention of a trustee, is void; but in courts of equity the object to be accomplished, and the considerations upon which such conveyances are made, will be considered, and if found meritorious and free from imposition and fraud, will be sustained; and this rule prevails even as against the husband’s creditors. -4, Where a husband purchases and improves real estate with the money of his wife, takes title thereto in his own name without her knowledge or consent, and subsequently conveys the property directly to his wife, without the intervention of a trustee, before any judgments are recovered against liim, such conveyance will invest the wife with an equitable title to the land conveyed. 5. Where a husband purchases land with his wife’s money, takes the title in his own name, and subsequently conveys the land directly to his wife, no presumption of fraud in such transaction alone arises in favor of a judgment creditor of the husband whose judgment was recovered eleven months after the record of the conveyance from the husband to the wife. 6. If a wife permits her husband to use her money as his own by investing it in property in his own name, and the husband obtains credit upon the faith of his apparent ownership thereof, so as to estop her from interposing a claim to the property as-against her husband’s creditors who obtain judgment subsequent to the conveyance of such property to the wife by her husband, this is a matter of defense to such creditors upon a bill filed by the wife to enjoin a sale of said property under such judgment, and it is not necessary for such matters of defense to be negatived Dy allegations in the bill of complaint.