Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/581

 KIMBEKIiINQ V. HARTLT. 573 �brought this action of ejectment to recover the property from the purchaeer at the sale made under the decree of the state court. To the answer, which by agreement is to be taken as setting up with the requisite fuUness and particularity the ■ above facts in bar, the plaintiff filed a demurrer. T. J. Oliphant, for plaintiff. B. D. Turner, for defendant. �Caldwell, J. The plaintiff contends that when Oliphant was adjudged a bankrupt the state court "was without juris- diction to proceed further in the pending cause, unless the assignee was made a party, and that, as that was not done, the decree of that court, and sale and conveyance thereunder, are nuUities, and that, as the land reverted to Oliphant under the limitation in the deed to his wife, after he waa adjudged a bankrupt, it was a new acquisition, and his deed invested plaintiff with the legal title. Judgment, execution, and a return of nulla bona thereon, placed the judgment crediter in a position to assail any conveyances made by the judgment debtor to defraud his creditors, and a bill was filed for that purpose, making the judgment debtor and the alleged fraudu- lent grantee defendants. Proper process issued and was duly served on the judgment debtor, to whom, under the limitation contained in the deed to his wife, it is conceded the legal title to the property reverted upon her death, which occurred soon after the institution of the suit, and after that event Oliphant was the sole proper defendant in the action. �By these proceedings the state court acquired complete jurisdiction over the parties to the suit, and the subject-mat- ter of the action; and the plaintiff acquired a lien in equity on the lands mentioned in his bill, and the right,if he estab- lished the fraud, to subject them to the payment of his judg- ment. The law is well settled that the filing of such a cred- itor's bill, and the service of process in the action, create a lien in equity upon the lands described in the bill, and enti- tle the plaintiff to priority over other creditors. Storm v. Waddell, 2 Sandf. Ch. e94 ; Tilford v. Burnham, 7 Dand. 110 ; Maffitt V. Ingham, Id. 495; Hartshom v. Eames, 31 Me. 93; Newdigate v. Jacobs, 9 Dana, 18; McDarmott v. Strong, 4 ��� �