Seeders v. Allen

Illinois Supreme Court
Seeders v. Allen, 98 Ill. 468 (Ill. 1881)
1881 Ill. LEXIS 277
Dickey

Seeders v. Allen

Opinion of the Court

Mr. Chief Justice Dickey

delivered the opinion of the Court:

We find no ground for setting aside the deeds by which the legal title to the land in question passed from Seeders to his wife. The proofs present no indications of fraud on the part of Mrs. Seeders, or anything said or done by her inviting others to trust her husband upon the supposition that he was the real owner of the laud. She never, by word or deed, held him out as such owner to the world, or to any of these (who afterward became) creditors. She was in equity the owner, and her equitable title was by these deeds properly converted into a legal title, and this before any lien was established against the legal title in the hands of her husband. Her equity was first in time, and therefore first in right, and was first consummated. The intention of Mrs. Seeders to get the legal title in advance of creditors who were seeking it, or might seek it, was not a fraudulent intent. It was a lawful intent. The land- was equitably her own, and as between her and creditors of her husband she was equitably entitled to it. This is not a case of a debtor conveying his own estate to his wife, to. prevent creditors from seizing it.

The decree is, therefore, reversed, and the bill dismissed.

Decree reversed.

Reference

Full Case Name
Mary L. Seeders v. Singleton B. Allen
Cited By
5 cases
Status
Published
Syllabus
Fraudulent conveyance—investing equitable owner with legal title is not fraudulent. Where a wife’s land, which she took by inheritance, is, on a partition made by her husband and the other tenant in common, conveyed by the latter to both husband and wife, and the latter has said or done nothing to induce others to trust her husband, upon the belief of his ownership of the same, the conversion of the wife’s equitable title to the land into a legal title, before any liens attached in favor of her husband’s creditors, is not fraudulent as to creditors. Her intention to get the legal title in advance of creditors who were seeking it, or might seek it, was not a fraudulent intent, but was a lawful one.