Levi v. Rothschild

Robinson, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. ’ This is a bill by the creditors of the husband to set-aside a deed of a house to his wife, and which on its face shows she was the purchaser, on the ground t-liat the money applied to the payment of the house was in fact the husband’s money, and that the deed was made to her in fraud of his creditors. It can hardly be necessary to say, that where a conveyance is made to the wife of an insolvent debtor, the burden of proof is upon the wife to show that the property was purchased and paid for out of money belonging to her; and that in the absence of such proof, the presumption is that the husband furnished the means of payment. Seitz vs. Mitchell, 94 U. S., 580 ; Hinkle vs. Wilson, 53 Md., 287 . It is admitted that $1800 of the $2600, applied in payment of the house, was received by the wife from her husband a short time before his failure in business, with full knowledge on her part- that he was in failing circumstances. h! ow what is the proof in support of the bona fides of this transaction ?

The husband, Levi, says, he was mar ³⁵⁰ ried in 1876 in Baltimore, and shortly, afterwards went to Clarksburg, Virginia, and while doing’business there, his wife loaned him $2000 which she had received as a marriage gift from her father, and which he promised to repay as soon he could;—that after being in business about’a year he sold out his stores to Nusbaum & Taylor, taking their promissory notes for between six and seven thousand dollars in payment, and these notes on his returning to Baltimore he assigned to his father-in-law Heiman, expecting at the time to go into partnership with him, but being unable to agree upon terms with his father-in-law, he removed to Ottumwa, Iowa, taking with him .merchandise of the value of seven thousand dollars, bought of his father-in-law in payment of the Nusbaum & Taylor notes—that after being in business there about four years, he was obliged to make an assignment for the benefit of his creditors, the preferred creditor being Heiman, his father-in-law, and to whom the assignee afterwards paid the entire assets, amounting to nearly nine thousand dollars— that some months before his failure he paid to his wife different sums of money amounting altogether to $1800, on account of the $2000 loaned to him in Clarksburg,— this money she kept in her bureau till they removed to Baltimore, and afterwards used it in the payment of the house in question. Unfortunately, however, for all this, the wife tells quite a different story, and one utterly