Crawford v. Neal

Citations

• 144 U.S. 585
• 12 S. Ct. 759
• 36 L. Ed. 552
• 1892 U.S. LEXIS 2105

Syllabus

<p>The jurisdiction of a Federal court hy reason of diverse citizenship is not defeated by the mere fact that a transfer of the plaintiff's interest was made in order, in part, to enable the purchaser to bring suit in a court of the United States,'provided the transfer was absolute, and the assignor parted with all his interest for good consideration.</p> <p>The statutes forbidding the transfer by a debtor of his property with intent to hinder, delay or defraud creditors do not invalidate a conveyance by a debtor to a bona fide creditor, with intent to prefer him.</p> <p>The burden of setting aside a conveyance by a debtor as made with intent to hinder, delay or defraud creditors is on the attacking creditor; but where the fraudulent intent on the grantor’s part is made out, and the circumstances are suspicious, then the purchaser must show that he paid full value; and if this is shown it must then be made to appear that the purchaser had full knowledge of the fraud.</p> <p>The findings and conclusions of a master upon conflicting testimony are to be taken as presumptively .correct, and unless some obvious error in the application of the law has intervened, or some serious or important mistake has been made in the consideration of the evidence, the decree should stand.</p> <p>The continued possession by an insolvent debtor of his real estate after the transfer of it to a creditor by way of preference may be explained by the surrounding circumstances.</p> <p>Of two conveyances made by an insolvent debtor at the same time to two individuals, one may be held to be valid as a preference of a bona fide creditor, and the other invalid as made with an intent to hinder, delay or defraud creditors, unless the two transactions are so intermingled as to make them necessarily but one transaction, in which case both will be void.</p>