Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 9.djvu/99

 84 PEDEBAL BBPOETBE. ���WiswELL, Assignee, v. Jauvis and others. {.District Court, D. Maine. 1881.) �1. FrAUDS — VoLUNTART OoNVErANCB BY A HUSBAND TO HiS WlFE — OrEDITORS. �A voluntary conveyance by a husband to his wife of a valuable estate is, by the law of the state, prima fade fraudulent as to then exiating creditors. �2. Husband and Wifb — Void Agrebments. �An understanding between a husband and wife that on his death she should have all of his estate for the use of herself and chiJdren imposes no legal liability on the husband. Therefore, where a husband, a ship-master, on pro- ceeding to sea makes a conveyance of his property to his wife by way of carry- ing out such an understanding, the conveyance is without consideration. �8. Same — Voluntary Convetancb — Cbbditobs. �At the time such conveyance was made it appeared that the husband was indebted to the amount of $3,000 only ; that he retain ed of pcrsonal property more than fourfold that amount; that for at least four years the creditors could have received their full pay at any moment, he having oflered to pay them and they having refused it ; and that, subsequently, by extraordinary misfor- tunes, he lost nearly the entire amount of hjs Personal property. Hdd, that the conveyance could not be set aside by these creditors as being fraudulent and void under the statutes of Elizabeth. �4. Rev. St. Maese, c. 61, § 1. �Nor can the conveyance be attacked under the provisions of chapter 61, } 1, of the Revised Statutes of Maine, which declares "that when property is con- veyed by the husband to his wife without a valuable consideration made there- for, it may be taken as the property of the husband, to pay his debts contracted before such purchase." �Andrew P. Wiswell, pro se. �Henry L. Mitchell, for respondents. �Fox, D. J. This bill was filed June 32, 1880, by the assignee of Francis H. Jarvis, against the bankrupt and his wife, to set aside a conveyance of a house and lot in Castine, in this district, made by the bankrupt to his father-in-law, Alfred Hovey, on the fifteenth day of Mareb, 1871, and by him conveyed to Mrs. Jarvis on the third day of April of the same year. (Jarvis was, on his own petition, filed August 17, 1878, adjudged a bankrupt by this court.) Said convey- ances are charged to have been without consideration, and fraudulent and void, under the statutes of Elizabeth, as to existing creditors, two of whom have proved their debts in bankruptcy, viz. : C. J. Abbott, executor of estate of Jonathan Perkins, deceased, to the amount of $931; and Andrew J. Jarvis, to the amount of $2,147.92. The value of the estate so conveyed is alleged to have been about $5,000. It is also charged that said conveyance was fraudulent and void as to subsequent creditors, and was made with an intent to defeat the provisions of the bankrupt aot. ��� �