Opinion of the Court. the lots could be used to pay off their indebtedness, they arranged with the Schreyers for an advance of the amount that should be needed in addition to the sums they could borrow on mortgages from the Ward estate. The Ward estate agreed to loan $10,000 on each lot and contemplated building. In pursuance of this arrangement, Mrs. Schreyer released her mortgages, new ones were executed to the Ward estate for $10,000 on each lot, and the difference in money, $6000 and over, was paid to Gebhart and Ritchie, respectively, and by them handed to the Schreyers; and, when the buildings were completed, new mortgages were executed to Mrs. Schreyer for the $2200 of her original mortgage, and the excess of the cost above the amount furnished by the Ward estate. Schreyer, who was a practical builder, superintended the construction of the buildings. Vanderbilt made a contract with Gebhart and Ritchie for the mason work, as heretofore stated. He entered into this contract with knowledge that the $5000 bond and mortgage which Schreyer proposed to transfer in part payment was second and subordinate to a prior mortgage of $16,000. He must have assumed, when he made the contract, that the property mortgaged was good for both mort gages; and, according to the testimony, it was then considered worth from thirty to thirty-five thousand dollars. When he had so far completed his contract as to be entitled to the assignment of his bond and mortgage, he demanded its guaranty from Schreyer; and he, in order that there might be no delay in the work, gave the required guaranty. Two years thereafter, owing to depreciation in value of real estate, the property covered by this $5000 bond and mortgage was sold under foreclosure of the $16,000 mortgage, and realized only enough to pay that. Hence, Schreyer became liable on his guaranty. Is there anything in these facts to show fraud in intent or fraud in result? Obviously not. Vanderbilt entered into his contract with full knowledge of all the circumstances, unquestionably considering the $5000 bond and mortgage well secured, and willing to take his chances of its payment on foreclosure, if not otherwise. Schreyer, making no representations or concealments, doubtless acted in the same belief; Opinion of the Court. and when, after partial completion of the contract, he, to prevent delay in the future work, guaranteed payment of the bond and mortgage, he did so in the belief that it was amply secured, and that he was assuming little or no risk in his guaranty. If fraud or wrong was intended on his part, obviously he would have refused to guarantee, and left Vanderbilt to take that which his contract entitled him to. The very fact of his voluntarily assuming a risk which he was under no obligations to assume, and which in no manner inured to his benefit, is satisfactory evidence that he had no thought of fraud. The subsequent depreciation of the value of real estate, and the failure to realize on the sale thereafter more than the first $16,000 mortgage, was something anticipated by neither party. It was one of those vicissitudes unexpected and unlooked for -not planned for- and doubtless an astonishment to all the parties. All the arrangements for the execution of these second mortgages to Mrs. Schreyer were made before any guaranty or personal liability on the part of Schreyer was demanded or thought of, and it does not appear that he was in debt to any one at the time the arrangements were so made. Surely this unnecessary and voluntary assumption on his part in no manner indicates fraud in the arrangements already entered into and subsequently carried out, for the execution of these bonds and mortgages to Mrs. Schreyer. In the case of Carr v. Breese, 81 N. Y. 584, which was like this in presenting an unexpected depreciation in the value of property, the court justly observed: "Reverses came unexpectedly, while in the pursuit of his ordinary business, without any intention on his part to defraud his creditors, and it may be said that, without any fault on his part, except a want of human foresight, he became embarrassed and insolvent. It is not apparent that Breese had in view, at the time of the execution of the deed to his wife, any such result, or that he in any way contributed to produce the result which followed, for the purpose of defrauding his creditors and enjoying the advantages to be derived from the provisions made for his wife. Under such circumstances, the presumption of any fraudulent intent is rebutted, and it is manifest that he had done no more Opinion of the Court. than any business man has a right to do, to provide against future misfortune when he is abundantly able to do so." Further, as negativing any fraud in intent, a year after this guaranty, and when undoubtedly there must have been developing some probability of liability therefrom, Schreyer purchased other real estate and took the title in his own name. Still, again, not only did he continue in his regular business of stair-building after these transactions, but it is evident from his bank-books, produced in evidence, that his business was of considerable magnitude, for between August 26, 1869, and September 6, 1876, a period of about seven years, and including the time of these transactions, his deposits amounted to $391,296.44. We have thus far considered the case as to these transfers from Schreyer to his wife, as if they were purely voluntary; but according to his testimony, and there is none contradicting it, they were far from voluntary, but rather the passing of the legal title to his wife, of property of which she was, prior thereto, the equitable owner, or in which she had. at least a large equitable interest. She had between twenty-five hundred and three thousand dollars in money when they were married, in April, 1854. She purchased the leasehold interest in the lots on 39th Street, paying therefor out of her own moneys, $500 each. They lived on one of the lots, and the building on the other was rented. Unquestionably, therefore, the rents belonged to her. She also kept boarders for a number of years, two of them living with her for at least ten years, paying $5.00 per week each. The balance of the money she had when married she passed over to him from time to time for improvements on the property, or use in his business. It is true that afterwards buildings of considerable value were put upon these lots; and we do not wish to be understood as affirming that the entire cost of the property was the proceeds of her investment, or her earnings. All that the testimony fairly discloses is, that at the time of her marriage she was possessed of separate property, which was the foundation and largely the source of these subsequent accumulations. So that the conveyances in 1871 were not purely vol Opinion of the Court. untary, but meritorious and upon good consideration. The same may be said as to the bonds and mortgages placed in her name in 1874. It is objected by the appellees that Schreyer's testimony is not to be depended upon, because contradictory, confused and uncertain; that there is no definiteness in it as to amounts and dates; and that wrong in the transactions is evident, because the moneys received for rent after the conveyances, were deposited by Schreyer in his own name in bank, and were obviously managed and handled by him as his own, as no accounts were kept between husband and wife of their separate moneys, but all were mingled in one fund, in his hands. But does all this indicate fraud? If his testimony is worthless and to be rejected, then there is practically no testimony interpreting those transactions, and the court never presumes fraud. The very confusion and carelessness in the dealings between husband and wife make against rather than in favor of the claim of fraud. There is no evidence that he was in debt at the time of these conveyances, at least beyond a trifling amount, which was subsequently paid; and if the parties had intended fraud and wrong, unquestionably their accounts would have been kept carefully and accurately, and books would now be presented showing such accounts. Husband and wife evidently saw no necessity of dealing with each other at arm's length; the title to the property was placed in her name when there was no legal or equitable reason why it should not be done; and the rents and other cash receipts were not unnaturally kept in one account and handled as one fund. The lack of substantial indebtedness and the record of the transfer being established, the carelessness of their dealings tends to prove honesty rather than to establish fraud. Again, it is objected that the conduct of Schreyer, in respect to the bankrupt proceedings, is suspicious; that the bankrupt proceedings, though nominally at the instance of a creditor, were really at his instance; that the bankrupt and the creditor found their counsel in the same office; and that the other claims proved against him were in some suspicious way fixed up and adjusted, leaving only Vanderbilt's claim unpaid. Opinion of the Court. Conceding all that is claimed by counsel in reference to these bankrupt proceedings in 1878, it is difficult to deduce therefrom any evidence of wrong in the transactions in 1871 and 1874. It may be that Schreyer did not want to pay Vanderbilt's claim; and it may be, as claimed by counsel, that he improperly sought the assistance of the bankrupt court to be relieved from liability therefrom; but it would be a very unjust conclusion from such facts, that in 1871, when he made the conveyances to his wife, and in 1874, when he made the arrangement for the execution of the bonds and mortgages to his wife, anterior to any known or expected liability to Vanderbilt, he was acting with a view of subsequently going through bankruptcy, or defrauding Vanderbilt or any other creditor. Recapitulating, the conveyances in 1871 were meritorious, upon good consideration, made by one in debt in only a trifling sum, and retaining an abundance of property for the discharge of those debts, and who in fact subsequently, and as they became due, paid them-made by one continuing and expecting to continue in the same profitable and not hazardous business in which he had been engaged for nearly a score of years, with no thought of entering upon any new or hazardous business, and more than three years before any liability to Vanderbilt was incurred or even thought of. And the placing of the notes, bonds and mortgages in 1874 in Mrs. Schreyer's name was in pursuance of an arrangement entered into when the husband was not in debt, and when no obligation, fixed or contingent, to Vanderbilt had been entered into or thought of. Under these circumstances it is error to hold that the transactions were fraudulent and void as against Vanderbilt. The decree of the Circuit Court must be reversed, and the case remanded, with instructions for further proceedings in accordance with the views herein expressed. VOL. CXXXIV-27 |