Robinson v. Anderson
Robinson v. Anderson
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The testimony in this case conduces to show that in the year 1849 the husband of the appellee (Mrs. Anderson) became insolvent, and it was necessary to dispose of all his estate for the payment of his debts. His estate was valuable, and his wife, who desired his debts paid, relinquished all her right in consideration of $1,200 that she seems to have invested in real estate, and had
The appellant had notice of the wife’s equity before he purchased, and therefore he should be satisfied with having so much of the land sold as will pay the balance of his judgment 'and costs, upon the idea that it must be presumed that the husband had some interest in the land. He was a man of business habits,
He prepared one of the deeds himself and accepted the others, and his business character repels the idea that he was ignorant of what had been done, or that he could not have discovered at once the mistakes. All the conveyances, and they were several, that were made prior to the date of the execution of the joint deeds were made to the wife alone, and there can be assigned no such excuse on the part of the husband as the execution of these deeds through inadvertence. The husband no doubt felt that his services entitled him to a joint interest, and as the accumulations to the estate were caused by his efforts and management during a period of twenty or thirty years, and these deeds have been made and placed to record vesting him with title, although unknown to the wife, the creditor’s claim should be paid out of the trust property for the reason that .he has an interest at least to that extent in it. The amount of the debt of appellant is $322.75, with interest from January 1, 1852, and $3.10 costs, credited by $201 paid November 22, 1859. This sum, together with the costs, should be made out of the land conveyed jointly to the husband and wife; that is, out of the one-half conveyed to the husband.
The only serious question involved in the case is whether the appellants are entitled to the land purchased under their execution, or should be compelled to accept their debt by a resale of the trust property in order that the rights of the wife should be protected and the trust enforced as between herself and husband. We think the latter is the equitable view of the case. The wife was too old to know much of business transactions, and to deprive her of the one-half of the land for the satisfaction of the debt would be inequitable under the circumstances of this case. The chancellor should therefore sell so much of the interest of the husband as will pay the appellants’ debt and costs and secure to the wife the balance for her own use.
The judgment below is reversed and cause remanded for proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.