Hester v. Thomson

Mississippi Supreme Court
Hester v. Thomson, 58 Miss. 108 (Miss. 1880)
Campbell

Hester v. Thomson

Opinion of the Court

Campbell, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

In order to ascertain the amount due Mrs. Hester, it was proper to inquire how much she had received of what was due her from her husband; and although the bill contains no averment or prayer on which to base such accounting, it was rendered necessary by the course of the litigation resulting from the claim asserted by Mrs. Hester in her answer.

The rules by which courts of equity adjust the rights of parties in cases like this are variant, and seem to depend .on the peculiar circumstances of each case, the principle being that justice shall be done according to the view taken of the relative positions and rights of the pai’ties. In the language of the Supreme Court of the United States, speaking of the ■different modes adopted by courts of law and courts of chancery in dealing with fraudulent conveyances, “ When the proceeding is in chancery, the jurisdiction exercised is more flexible and tolerant. The equity appealed to, while it scans' the transaction with the severest scrutiny, looks at all the facts, and, giving to each one its due weight, deals with the ■subject before it according to its own ideas of right and justice. In some instances it visits the buyer with the same consequences which would have followed at law ; [which are stated, in the opinion quoted from, to be a loss of the property by the buyer, without reference to the amount or application of what he has paid, and without a relief for him, either at law ■or in equity] in others, it allows a security to stand for the amount advanced upon it; in others, it compels the buyer to account only for the difference between the under price, which he paid, and the value of the property; in others, although he may have paid the full value, and the property may have passed beyond the reach of the process of the court, it regards him as a trustee, and charges him accordingly. Where he has *120honestly applied, the property to the liabilities of the seller, it may hold him excused from further responsibility. The cardinal principle in all such cases is, that the property of the debtor shall uofi be diverted from the payment of his debts, to the injury of his creditors, by means of the fraud.” Clements v. Moore, 6 Wall. 299.

We approve the foregoing view, notwithstanding what is said in the opinion in Bernheim & Co. v. Beer, 56 Miss. 149, upon a question not involved in the case. Bump’s Fr. Conv. 588 et seq.

After careful examination of the voluminous record, we find in it no error against Mrs. Hester, except as to an item of $90, committed in stating a sum due her; but it does not affect the result. No decree has been made against her, and she is not entitled to anything out of the land as against her adversaries in this suit.

Decree affirmed.

Reference

Full Case Name
Caroline Hester and Husband v. William H. Thomson
Cited By
2 cases
Status
Published
Syllabus
1. Chancery Practice. Account not contemplated, by bill. When proper. Case in ¡judgment. T., a judgment creditor of H., filed a bill to vacate a conveyance of land made by the latter to his wife, as being a fraud upon his rights, and to subject the property to the payment of his judgment. Mrs. H. answered that the conveyance was made to satisfy a debt due her by her husband. The court ordered an account to be taken to ascertain how much was really due her from her husband, with the view of subjecting the property conveyed, so far as its value exceeded such debt, to T.’s judgment. The commissioner, in his account, charged Mrs. H. with the rents of the land conveyed to her, after the date of T.’s judgment up to the time a receiver was appointed, and credited her with improvements made during that time. She excepted to such accounting, and her exceptions were overruled. Held, that such accounting was proper; and although there was no averment or prayer in the bill upon which to base it, it was rendered necessary by the course of the litigation resulting from the claim asserted by the answer. 2. Same. Rules of equity as to the administration of relief. The rules by which courts of equity adjust the rights of parties in cases like the one above stated are variant, and seem to depend on the peculiar circumstances of each case, the principle being that justice shall be done according to the view taken of the relative positions and rights of the parties. Clements v. Moore, 6 Wall. 299, quoted and approved, notwithstanding the obiter dicta in Bemheim v. Beer, 56 Miss. 149, to the contrary. 3. Same. Immaterial error. No ground of reversal. A decree in chancery based upon an erroneous account will not be reversed for such error, where it appears that it did not affect the result as to the lights or interest of the party appealing.