Weiskircher v. Volk

Citations

• 29 Pa. Super. 611
• 1905 Pa. Super. LEXIS 390

Syllabus

<p>Execution — Judgment—Fraud.</p> <p>The issuing of an execution for an amount largely in excess of what is actually due, there being no uncertainty in the mind of the plaintiff as to the amount of the indebtedness, without any other evidence of fraudulent purpose, is a fraud upon the rights of subsequent creditors.</p> <p>While the parties may agree that a judgment may remain on the record as security for other debts, this cannot be effective to the prejudice of innocent third parties.</p> <p>Fraud, while concealed, is beyond the reach of the law, yet concealment is itself indicative of fraud, and, if unexplained, establishes a presumption of fraud which its author must rebut, or bear the consequences. If a party chooses to blend a claim which the law permits with one which it pronounces fraudulent, in an attempt to enforce them by the same process, he cannot look to the court to separate them, and preserve the former while avoiding the latter. Being united by the act of the party, they must stand or fall together, as a whole. The fraud inhering in part of the collective claim must be held to taint the whole, and the claim which, standing alone, would be valid, must fall with the fraudulent one with which it is combined.</p>