Page:Lenox v. Notrebe, Hempst. 251 (Super. Ct. Ark. Terr. 1834).pdf/6

256 Rh   Hardwicke determined that a trustee could not buy at a sale by auction, and Lord Eldon has followed that decision. The reason is apparent. So jealous is the court of a trustee's taking advantage of his situation to beneﬁt himself, that he could not even purchase property which the owner refused to sell to the cestui que trust. So a trustee who purchases a mortgage or judgment which was a lien upon the trust estate, is not allowed to turn such purchase to his own advantage. 1 Maddox, 90–93; 1 Johns. Ch. Rep. 27; 2 Ib. 252. In 2 Caines' Cases in Error, 183, it is decided that a trustee cannot purchase an out standing claim or title for his own beneﬁt. If this doctrine be true, and of that there can be no doubt, then what sort of title did Lenox acquire, when holding the property for Hamilton's children, by this purchase from Rainey? If the purchase from Rainey was fair and for a valuable consideration, it could not avail the complainant any thing, for he was holding as trustee for the defendants, and hence he could take nothing by his purchase, and it would enure to their beneﬁt. How much stronger is the case against. him when he comes into equity and sets up a title which, by his own showing, is fraudulent on its face, and that, too, to defeat the rights of infants, acquired for a valuable consideration. Besides, this fraudulent deed or bill of sale was executed long after the suit was commenced, and even after the filing of the cross-bill, and for the avowed and express purpose of defeating a legal and equitable title.

The defendants claim as purchasers for a valuable consideration, which is proved to have been advanced and paid to Notrebe in discharge of his demand against their ancestor, and this title is attempted to be disturbed and overthrown by a voluntary conveyance, fraudulently entered into, to defeat the rights of innocent purchasers or creditors. The rule of law, that a fraudulent conveyance between the grantor and grantee is obligatory upon himself and his heirs, so far from prejudicing the right of the infants before the court, will shield and protect them. They are purchasers, and claim the estate as such, and do not derive title by descent. The conveyance of Rainey to Lenox, as to them, is fraudulent and void. But it is said that Notrebe and the defendants treated the sheriff's sale as a