Holloway & McRaney Co. v. Brame
Holloway & McRaney Co. v. Brame
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
The bill of appellee Brame, as trustee of the bankrupt estate of one Shia, charges that in December, 1901, Shia was insolvent, and, being so, sold his mercantile stock to what was then a mere partnership styled Holloway & McRaney, and was adjudged bankrupt in the February following, the sale being less than four months before the adjudication; that this sale was upon a conspiracy between him and them to defraud his creditors; that he delivered to them $10,000 worth of goods for a nominal sum, which goods he had bought on credit, which credit he got by exaggerating his rating as a merchant, in which they collusively joined; and the prayer is for discovery, and that Holloway & McRaney be charged as trustees ex maleficio for the value of the goods. An amended bill sets up further that on the day of the alleged fraudulent sale, December 18,1901, Holloway & McRaney were organizing themselves into a corporation, which was completed December 31, 1901, and that Shia owed the firm, and the transfer of the goods was a performance denounced by the bankrupt act; that the corporation was simply a merger of the firm; that its incorporators were the same people, that it got all the firm property, and assumed all the firm debts; and the
As against then existing creditors, represented by tbe trustee of Shia’s estate in bankruptcy, no title passed by tbe fraudulent transaction between bim and tbe firm, botb being mala fide., and tbe liability of Sbia to tbe extent of tbe value of tbe goods delivered is enforceable in equity against tbe firm receiving them, and against tbe corporation, composed only of the same persons, taking tbe assets with full knowledge and assuming tbe liabilities of tbe firm. Vicksburg v. Citizen's Telephone Co., 79 Miss., 341; s. c., 30 South., 725 ; s. c., 89 Am. St. Rep., 656 — a milder case than this. Sbia was liable to bis creditors. The firm who fraudulently got bis goods became liable to bis creditors for their value; and tbe corporation, composed of tbe members of the firm only, which took tbe goods of tbe firm without consideration and with full notice, is also liable. If tbe contention of counsel were to prevail, in a case like this, that tbe court should have credited on the value of tbe goods.tbe account of tbe firm against Sbia for which it took goods, and tbe cash it paid bim at a very inadequate valuation, it would be a legal condonation of a gross fraud designed by botb parties to enable Sbia to- cheat bis creditors. In fact, these were tbe very incentives to tbe accom-; plisbment of tbe fraud, and without which it would not have been perpetrated. Neither law nor reason assents to the contention. Neither so encourages actual fraud. Botb denounce it. There is nothing, as we think, in tbe contention that tbe members of tbe firm of Holloway & McHaney were tbe parties, to be sued, on the ground that tbe other creditors might sue tbe firm, and not tbe corporation, about tbe same thing, and that tbe firm then could not set up tbe recovery for tbe corporation. It could set it up. Brame, Jr., has recovered as trustee for all tbe creditors of Sbia, tbe value of all bis goods which went from bim to tbe firm and from tbe firm to tbe corporation, and none of tbe creditors can get from either tbe value of the goods any more.
Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.