Absconding Debtor

One who absconds from his creditors. The statutes of the various states, and the decisions upon them, have determined who shall be treated in those states, respectively, as absconding debtors, and liable to be proceeded against as such. A person who has been in a state only transiently, or has come into it without any intention of settling therein, cannot be treated as an absconding debtor (2 Gaines [N. Y.] 318; 15 Johns. [N. y.] 196; 4 Watts [Pa.] 422); nor can one who openly changes his residence (3 Yerg. [Tenn.] 414; 5 Conn. 117). For the rule in Vermont, see 2 Vt. 489; 6 Vt. 614. It is not necessary that the debtor should actually leave the state. 7 Md. 209.

One who absconds from his creditors. One who with intent to defeat or delay his creditors departs out of England, or being out, remains out. Bankcy. Act, 1883, § 4. The statutes of the various states and the decisions upon them have defined absconding debtors. A person who has been in a state only transiently, or has come into it without any intention of settling therein, cannot be treated as such; In re Fitzgerald, 2 Caines (N. Y.) 318; Dudley v. Staples, 15 Johns. (N. Y.) 196; nor can one who openly changes his residence; Dunn v. Myres, 3 Yerg. (Tenn.) 414; Fitch v. Waite, 5 Conn. 117; House v. Hamilton, 43 Ill. 185; In re Proctor, 27 Vt. 118; Mandel v. Peet, 18 Ark. 236. It is not necessary that the debtor should actually leave the state; Field v. Adreon, 7 Md. 209. If he depart from his usual place of abode secretly or suddenly, or retire or conceal himself from public view in order to avoid legal process; Bennett v. Avant, 2 Sneed (Tenn.) 152; Ives v. Curtiss, 2 Root (Conn.) 133; he is an absconder. It is essential that there should be an intention to delay and defraud creditors. The fact of converting a large amount of goods into money by auction sales, at a sacrifice and clandestinely, furnishes a reasonable presumption that the debtor intended to abscond to avoid service of process upon him; Ross v. Clark, 32 Mo. 296. It has been held to mean more than "absent debtor" and that to state that a debtor absents himself is not a compliance with a statute relating to absconding debtors; Conard v. Conard, 17 N. J. L. 154. See Absentee.

One who absconds from his creditors. An absconding debtor is one who lives without the state, or who has intentionally concealed himself from his creditors, or withdrawn himself from the reach of their suits, with intent to frustrate their just demands. Thus, if a person departs from his usual residence, or remains absent therefrom, or conceals himself in his house, so that he cannot be served with process, with intent unlawfully to delay or defraud his creditors, he is an absconding debtor; but if he departs from the state or from his usual abode, with the intention of again returning, and without any fraudulent design, he has not absconded, nor absented himself, within the intendment of the law. 5 Conn. 121. A party may abscond, and subject himself to the operation of the attachment law against absconding debtors, without leaving the limits of the state, 7 Md. 209. A debtor who is shut up from his creditors in his own house is an absconding debtor, 2 Root, 133.