Wheaton v. Sexton's Lessee
Wheaton v. Sexton's Lessee
Opinion of the Court
delivered the-opinion of the Court.
, The suit below was ejectment, and the defendant in this Court recovered under a title derived from a'sale'by. the marshal of this District. The mar-, shal’s deed conveys the life estate of Wheaton in the lands in question. And the plaintiff below proved the title in the defendant’s wife, under conveyances executed after marriage.
The defence set up was a conveyance executed by Wheaton, to a trustee, for the sole and separate use of his wife, and her heirs, and the deed purports to have been executed in consideration, of, and to carry into
The second bill of exception§Jbrings up the question, whether the deed, to Caldwell, in trust for Mrs. Wheaton,^was not fraudulent and void as against : creditors. In ordinary cases, a voluntary conveyance of a man to the use of.his wife, when circumstanced as Wheaton was, would unquestionably be' void. But it is contended that, in this instance, a Court of Equity would have decreed Wheaton to make the conveyance he did execute, and, therefore, it Was not a voluntary, conveyance. That there are cases in
The instruction of the Court, given on motion of the plaintiff below, is, that the deed was void in law, “if it was made by the said Joseph Wheatoc without a valuable consideration therefor, or was made by him with intent to defeat, delay, or defraud his creditors.” Had the conjunction and been substituted in this, instruction for or, it would have been ehtirely unimpeachable.; but as it now reads, it must mean, that even had a valuable consideration been paid, if the. deed was made with intent to defeat creditors, it vyas void. We know of no law which avoids a deed where a valuable (by which, to a general intent, must also be understood adequate) consideration is paid, and the change of property be bona .fide, or such as it professes to be. Of such a contract it cannot be predicated that it is with intent to defeat or defraud creditors, sincej although the property itself no longer remains subject to the judgment, a substitute is furnished by. which that judgment may be satisfied. Nor is it any impeachment of such a deed that it is made to the' use of the family. of the maker. The trustee, in that, case, becomes the benefactor, and not the husband. It is
Although, from, any thing that appears in this cause, this Court can see no ground on which the jury could have found otherwise than they did, yet if the instruction was erroneous, and to the prejudice of the defendant below, as this Court cannot estimate its influence on the minds of the jury, the judgment must be reversed.
Judgment reversed.
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