Frankel v. Boyd

Citations

• 106 Cal. 608
• 39 P. 939
• 1895 Cal. LEXIS 649

Syllabus

<p>Divorce—Award of Community Property to Wife—Subjection to Debts of Husband. —Where the court, in an action for a divorce, assigns all the community property to the wife, leaving the husband without separate property, the property so assigned is taken subject to the equitable claim of existing contract creditors whose demands are due, or to become due, on account of credit extended to the husband for the benefit of the community during the existence of the marital relation.</p> <p>Id.—Creditor’s Bill—Supplies Furnished to Family—Wife’s Complaint for Divorce—Recognition of Debts.—The community property, entirely assigned to the wife in a decree of divorce, may be subjected to a creditor’s bill at the suit of a judgment creditor of the husband for supplies purchased by the wife, for which the credit was given to the husband, and which were used by the family bef ore the action for divorce was brought, and which are referred to in the wife’s complaint for divorce as due and unpaid for, as a predicate for seeking to have the entire community property set apart to her.</p> <p>Id.—Specific Lien not Required—Object of Creditor’s Bill.—It is not necessary, in order to maintain a creditor’s bill, that the plaintiff should have a specific lien upon the property sought to be held liable for the satisfaction of his debt; the nature and purpose of a creditor’s bill being to enable the creditor to apply to the payment of his debt the property of the debtor, which cannot be taken in an execution at law, or to aid the creditor in reaching property of his debtor passed beyond the reach of his creditors by ordinary process of law.</p>