Seward v. Van Wyck

Court for the Trial of Impeachments and Correction of Errors

Decided July 1, 1799

Court for the Trial of Impeachments and Correction of Errors · decided 1799-07-01

Ejectment by a purchaser under execution against Seward, defendant below. The facts of the case were as follows i Seward, the father, held the lands as owner in fee, at the time of the deed to his son, the defendant below. He had previously guarantied the payment of a certain judgment against S., who himself had lands bound by the judgment, which at a fair valuation, might well be thought sufficient to pay the judgment.

Relies on Rogers v. Eagle Fire Co.

Decided 1799-07-01

¶1The Court of Errors reversed the judgment; Stebbins, Spencer, and Allen, senators, who"read opinions, all concurred that the deed was not fraudulent in law. Jones, Chancellor, in an elaborate and able opinion, discusses the form of the special verdict, which instead of finding facts, had found all the evidence in the case as their special verdict; and though he evidently concurs with these senators that the deed is not fraudulent in law, and was in favor of sustaining it, yet he concludes: “ I am therefore constrained to declare that I can not decide the question of law raised by the parties upon this special verdict. It is radically and substantially defective, and its defects are in my judgment, incurable in this court. The proper course in such cases appears to me, to reverse the judgment. ”

¶2Judgment reversed.

¶3Sée to same effect, Rogers v. Eagle Fire Company of N. Y. 9 Wend. 611.