Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 8.djvu/510

 406 FEDERAL REPORTER. �United States v. Gbiswold and others. {Circuit Court, D. Oregon. August 12, 1881.) �1. Pkioritt of thb United States �Section 3466 (1 St. 515, 676) of the Revised Statutes does not give the United States a lien upon its debtor's property, but only a right to priority of payment eut of the same in certain cases, one of which is where a debtor not Iiaving sufflcient property to pay all his debts makes a voluntary assignment thereof. �2. Same-Asbignment. �A debtor of the United States may assign his property, within the meaning of this statute, by meana of judgments confessed in favor of varions persona for amounts equal in the aggregate to the value thereof, and the priority of the United States will thereupon attach to the property and prevail againat said jiidgments, but subjectto all prior valid liens thereon. �3. FEAUDULENT CONVETASCE. �G. beinsc liable to the United States, in a sum more than efitual to the value of his property, for money fraudulently obtained from the treasury, aaked L. & B. to loan him $10,000 on his note and mortgage, then exhibited, which they declined, but let him have $3,500 on the same, with a credit indorsed on the note of $6,500, and reoorded the mortgage for the full amount. Held, that upon the faots the mortgagees did not take the mortgage in excess of the loan for the purpose of aiding the mortgagor to hinder, delay, or def raud the United States, and tksref ore it was not fraudulent as to them. �4. BAME SlTBJBCT. �When a conveyance about which there is a suspicion of f raud will be allowed to stand as a security for the sum actually paid or advanced upon it. �5. Attornbts' Pbe. �An unconditional fee of $10,000, secured by a mortgage on real property, for the services of a flrm of three attorneys in defending an action in the district court involving a claim of $143,000 for damages and forfeitures under sections 3490 and 5438 of the Revised Statutes, and the character of the defendant, in which there were three jury trials concerning transactions scattered through a quarter of a century, and extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and one writ of error to the circuit court, and a final judgment against the defendant for $38,049, is not unreasonable, and furnishes no evidence that the mortgage was made for a sum larger than that agreed to be paid, for the purpose of hindering, delaying, or defrauding the ereditors of the mortgagor, or in trust that a por- tion of the amount might be refunded to him. �6. Pkioritt of thb United States— How Assbetbd. �A sale of property of a debtor of the United States, made upon a decree or judgment given after the right of priority of the latter attached,disregarded, and the matter referred to the masterto take an account of the sums due on the valid liens thereon, and sell the property free from them and distribute the pro- ceeds accordingly. �In Equity. �Addison C. O'ihhs, for plaintiff. �C. JB. Bellinger, for defendants. �(Valter W. Thayer, for defendants Ladd & Bush and Alberts. ��� �