Bridges v. Hindes

Tuck, J., delivered the opinion of this court: The appellants recovered a judgment at law against Stephen George, Jr., and sued out an attachment, which was laid in the hands of the appellees, to whom George, the defendant in the judgment, had executed two conveyances for the benefit of his creditors, one of them dated the 2nd of August 1854, and the other on the 5th of the same month. The judgment of the court below having been rendered against-the plaintiffs in the attachment, they have appealed, and now contend that the first of these deeds is void because of a reservation to the grantor, and that the Second is also void because it does not convey all the property and estate of the debtor. We take it to be very clear, on the words of the deed of the 2nd of August, that it contains a reservation for the benefit of the grantor. If the funds of the trust prove sufficient all the creditors will be paid, but what will be their predicament if they prove inadequate, and some of the creditors will not release?

In that event, the latter will take nothing under the deed, for the proportions that they might receive, if they assented, are reserved tq the grantor, and not devoted to the creditors. The deed appears to have been made for the benefit of releasing creditors only. It provides for that which was declared to be illegal in Malcolm vs. Hodges, 8 Md. Rep., 418 , as an implication from’ the terms of the instrument. There nothing was said of the surplus, and because it resulted to the grantor, the deed was set aside; here it is expressly given to the grantor.

There is no difference in principle between the cases in this respect. The deed being inoperative the property remained in the grantor for the benefit of his creditors, and on the 5th of August another was executed. It is supposed that this conveys all the debtor’s