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63 N.Y. 74

Holden v. . Burnham

New York Court of Appeals

Decided November 9, 1875

New York Court of Appeals · decided 1875-11-09

(Mem. of decision below, 2 Hun, 678; 5 T. & 0., 195.) This action was brought by plaintiffs as judgment creditors of defendant John W. Burnham, to set aside two deeds of certain real estate, one from said Burnham to defendant Lewis; the other from said Lewis to defendant Anna, wife of said John W. Burnham, upon the ground that said conveyances were without consideration and fraudulent as against creditors.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1875-11-09

How this case has been cited

Cited by 8 later decisions — most recently November 1957

1 federal appellate · 6 state decisions

40187518801890190019101920193019401950decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Andrews, J.

¶1 Conceding the claim of the counsel for the plaintiff, that the finding of the referee that the conveyance to Mrs. Burnham was founded upon a valuable consideration in equity was erroneous, yet this does not entitle the plaintiff to a reversal of the judgment. Although the conveyance from the husband was voluntary, it was not, for that reason, necessarily or presumptively fraudulent, as against his creditors. This I understand to be the necessary inference from the statute, which declares that no “ conveyance or charge shall be adjudged fraudulent as against creditors or *76 purchasers solely on the ground that it was not founded on a valuable consideration. ” (2 R. S., 137, § 4.) It is a circumstance bearing upon the question of fraud, and, in connection with other circumstances, may establish it. It was settled in this State before the statute, contrary to some earlier decisions, that a voluntary conveyance, by a person indebted at the time, was not by intendment of law fraudulent as to existing creditors. (Seward v. Jackson, 8 Cow., 406.) The statute then declared the rule in the language which has been quoted, with the additional provision that the question of fraudulent intent should be deemed a question of fact and not of law. (See Babcock v. Eckler, 24 N. Y., 632; Dygert v. Remerschnider, 32 id., 636.)

¶2 The action is founded upon the allegation that the conveyance by Mr. Burnham was made with intent to hinder, delay and defraud his creditors. There is no finding upon this question, or any request to find upon it.

¶3 We are asked to reverse the judgment for the reason that the finding of a consideration for the conveyance was not warranted by the proof, and for the further reason that on looking into the evidence it will appear that the conveyance was, in fact, fraudulent. The absence of a consideration, as has been shown, does not alone authorize a judgment for the plaintiff, and it is the settled doctrine in this court, which has frequently been declared, that the party who seeks to reverse a judgment rendered upon the report of a referee, upon the ground that it was not warranted by the facts proved, must procure a finding of facts upon the questions upon which he relies, and the court, when there are no findings upon the question presented, will not look into the evidence to see whether facts were proved which, if found, would subvert the judgment. (Fabbri v. Kalbfleisch, 52 N. Y., 28 ; Pratt v. N. Y. Cent. Ins. Co., 55 id., 505, and cases cited.)

¶4 We are therefore of the opinion that the judgment should be affirmed.

¶5 All concur; Miller, J., concurring in result.

¶6 Judgment affirmed.

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