Dunaway v. Robertson

Citations

• 95 Ill. 419
• 1880 Ill. LEXIS 194

Syllabus

<p>1. Fraudulent conveyance—what constitutes. A bill in chancery, filed for the purpose of setting aside certain deeds which the complainant had executed to his father in the lifetime of the latter, or to compel the other heirs to make a reconveyance, alleged, that “fearing he might in the then future become involved in litigation which, because of its tediousness and expensiveness, would probably embarrass him, but not for the purpose of avoiding the payment of any debt or obligation, legal or equitable, due from him or previously contracted by him,” complainant made out the deeds. It was held, the averment that the deeds rvere not made for the purpose of avoiding the payment of any debt or obligation, was but the statement of a conclusion, and did not relieve the conveyances of the fraudulent character attributable to them from the statement that they were made under an apprehension of embarrassment from anticipated litigation. If made under the circumstances mentioned, the deeds were fraudulent as to creditors.</p> <p>2. Chancery—relieving a party from his own. fraudulent acts. Where a conveyance has been made for the purpose of defrauding the creditors of the grantor, equity will not interpose to restore to the grantor the title to the property so fraudulently conveyed.</p> <p>3. For the same reason that there would be no interference by equity to set aside such conveyance when perfected, equity will not lend its aid to undo anything which has been done toward the making of such a conveyance.</p> <p>4. So, where the owner of land, in apprehension of embarrassment from anticipated litigation, and to protect his land against the result of such expected embarrassment, executed deeds for the same to another, and put the same upon record, but never delivered the deeds, a court of equity refused to interpose in any way to aid the party thus intending to defraud his creditors, in doing away with the deeds or the record of them, but left him in the position in which he