Shauer v. Alterton

Citations

• 151 U.S. 607
• 14 S. Ct. 442
• 38 L. Ed. 286
• 1894 U.S. LEXIS 2085

Syllabus

<p>An assignment of error, based upon the exclusion by the trial court of an answer given in the deposition of a witness to a particular question, will be disregarded by this court, if the answer or the full substance of it is not sot fortli in the record in an appropriate form for examination.</p> <p>In an action brought in Soutli Dakota by the assignee of the stock of goods of an insolvent trader (who had taken the stock in satisfaction of an. alleged debt due him from the insolvent) against a sheriff who had seized them on, a writ of attachment at the suit of a creditor of the insolvent, the defence being set up that the transfer to the plaintiff was fraudulent and in violation of the statutes of that State, it is competent for defendant to put in evidence a confidential business statement by the insolvent to a commercial agency, concealing the alleged liability to the plaintiff.</p> <p>'The statutes of that State, strictly construed, invalidate any transfer of property, made with the intent, on the part of the ownex', to delay or defraud creditors, even when the grantee purchased in good faith; and, when liberally construed, will not permit the grantee, although taking the property in part in satisfaction of his own debt, to enjoy it to the exclusion of other creditors, if the sale was made with intent to delay or defraud other creditors, and if he had, at the time, either actual notice of such intent, or knowledge of circumstances that were sufficient to put a prudent person upon an inquiry that would have .disclosed its existence.</p> <p>Such a transfer must be accompanied by an open and visible change of possession, without which it will be void as to creditors.</p> <p>The assignoi and the assignee to the transfer being brothers, the court may rightfully instruct the jury that this relation makes it necessary to carefully scrutinize the facts, but that their determination must depend upon whether the transaction was honest and bona fide.</p>