McKenna v. Simpson

by Stephen Johnson Field

United States Supreme Court

129 U.S. 506

McKenna  v.  Simpson

This was a suit by an assignee in bankruptcy to set aside certain conveyances of the bankrupt, and of others under his direction, upon the ground that they were made to defraud his creditors. It was commenced in one of the courts of Tennessee. The facts upon which it is founded, briefly stated, are as follows: In August, 1878, Robert McKenna, a resident of that state, one of the defendants below, filed his petition in bankruptcy in the district court for the Western district of Tennessee, and was in November, 1878, adjudged a bankrupt. In December following, Oscar Woodbridge was appointed his assignee, and a deed of assignment was made to him of the property and effects of the bankrupt. In May, 1880, the assignee filed a bill in the chancery court of Shelby county, Tenn., against the bankrupt and his infant daughter, Maud McKenna, to set aside, as fraudulent and void, certain conveyances of about 200 acres of land in that county,-one executed by the bankrupt, Robert McKenna, dated February 15, 1873, to Solomon Rose, for the alleged consideration of $8,000; one executed by Rose on the same day, for the like consideration, to Mrs. John Kirkup, of Kentucky, a sister of McKenna; and one executed by Mrs. Kirkup, August 1, 1876, to Mrs. Anna McKenna, wife of the bankrupt, and her three children, for the alleged consideration of $5,000. Of these grantees, Maud McKenna was the only one surviving when the bill was filed. Metcalf and Walker were also made defendants, because they claimed a lien upon the premises which had been adjudged in their favor in another suit. Woodbridge, the assignee, having died, the suit was revived in the name of J. Lawrence Simpson, who had been appointed assignee in place of the deceased. After wards the defendant Robert McKenna filed an answer to the complaint, denying that the conveyances were fraudulent and void, and alleging that the object of them was to effect a settlement of the land upon his wife and children, and that his financial condition at the time was such as to render it legal and proper for him to do so, as he had no debts. Robert McKenna having been appointed guardian of Maud McKenna, an answer was filed by him, as such guardian, for her, in which substantially the same matters of defense were set up. The defendants Metcalf and Walker filed an answer, and also a cross-bill, asserting their lien on the premises. Proofs were then taken, from which it appeared that no money consideration ever passed between the parties to the several conveyances mentioned; that Solomon Rose, grantor to Mrs. Kirkup, never saw her, and did not remember anything about the transaction, except that McKenna came to his office, and asked him to go to the court-house and make the conveyance; and that the deed of Mrs. Kirkup, dated August 1, 1876, was acknowledged July 18, 1878, one month before McKenna's bankruptcy, and was not registered until January 15, 1879, six months afterwards. The court held that the conveyances were voluntary and fraudulent, and made to hinder, delay, and defraud the creditors of the bankrupt McKenna; and, further, that the conveyances were inoperative to create an estate in the wife and children of McKenna as against the assignee in bankruptcy, the same not having been filed for registration until after the adjudication of the bankruptcy of McKenna. It was also held that the defendants Metcalf and Walker were entitled to the lien asserted by them. A decree was accordingly entered in favor of the complainant, adjudging that the title to the land was in him as assignee, and that neither the defendant Robert McKenna nor Maud McKenna had any title thereto, and ordering that the complainant recover the land and possession thereof; and also in favor of the defendants Metcalf and Walker for their lien on the land. On appeal to the supreme court of the state a decree was entered there, in substance, and almost in identical language, in effect affirming the decree appealed from. To review this latter decree the case is brought here on writ of error by Robert and Maud McKenna. The defendants in error now move to dismiss the writ on the ground that this court has no jurisdiction to review that decree.

Wm. M. Randolph, for plaintiffs in error. [510]

C. W. Metcalf and S. P. Walker, for defendants in error.

FIELD, J.

Notes