Dorn v. Bayer

Le Grand, C. J., delivered the opinion of this court. The object of the bill in this case is, to have declared fraudulent and void a bill of sale of certain property from Nicholas Kostner to John Dorn, and, as auxiliary thereto, an injunction restraining the sale of the goods mentioned in the bill of sale, and the appointment of a receiver to take charge of them until the further order of the court. On the filing of the bill, the court ordered the injunction and appointed a. receiver. The defendants answered under oath and then appealed, but this appeal was abandoned, the court continuing the injunction and receiver until the final hearing.

The- ¹⁵² court, decreed the bill of sale to be void, ‘-'as against the complainant and all other creditors of the defendant Kostner, who may become parties to this suit.*’ The bill does not ask a decree for the sale of the property, nor does the court pass one., The facts alleged in the bill are simply these: That the appellee, Bayer, sold to the appellant, Kostner, a house in Bond street,giving him a deed for it, and taking a mortgage on the same for the payment of the purchase money; that at the time of these transactions, Kostner was (he owner of a house on Caroline street, Baltimore, and was the proprietor of certain household furniture and the stock in a confectionary store; that he failed to pay any part of the mortgage debt, and that? with a view to defraud the appellee he sold the house in Caroline street, and fraudulently made the bill of sale to the appellant, Dorn, of the household and other goods; that, in fact? the bill of sale was wholly without consideration and intended to hinder, delay and defraud the creditors of Kostner* The answers expressly deny, under oath, all fraud and aver the perfect bona Jides of the transaction. The bill did not call for the answers under oath, and, there is nothing in the; record to show they were read at the hearing by the complainant; they, therefore, are not to be taken as evidence at final hearing, and can only be looked to by the court in connection with the bill, for the purpose of ascertaining what points are at issue. The decision of the case depends, entirely, upon the proof adduced on the part of the respective-parties. Some portions of it is unintelligible, and other parte of it without any bearing on the merits of the controversy* Yet, there is sufficient in it to warrant the decree of the Circuit court.

It is clearly to be inferred? from the whole proof? that the' defendant, Kostner, had no other