White v. Cotzhausen

Citations

• 129 U.S. 329
• 9 S. Ct. 309
• 32 L. Ed. 677
• 1889 U.S. LEXIS 1692

Syllabus

<p>The Voluntary Assignment Act of the State of Illinois of 1877, which went into effect July 1, 1877, was intended to secure equality of right among all the creditors of the debtor making the assignment, and was a remedial act, to be liberally construed. ■</p> <p>In Illinois the surrender by an insolvent debtor of'the dominion over his entire estate, with an intent to evade the operation of the Voluntary Assignment Act of that State, and the transfer of the whole or substan- • tially the whole of his property to a part of his creditors in order to give them a preference over other creditors, whether made by one instrument, or more and whatever their form may be, operates as an assignment under that act; the benefit of which may be claimed by any unpreferred creditor who will take appropriate steps in a court of equity to enforce the equality contemplated by it.</p> <p>A creditor in Illinois who attempts to secure to himself an illegal preference of his debt by means of a conveyance to him of the property of his debtor when insolvent, to the exclusion of other creditors, is not thereby debarred, under the operation of the Voluntary Assignment Act, from participating in a distribution under that act of all the debtor’s property, including that thus illegally conveyed to him.</p>