Case ID: sc-eq_25/html/0227-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "\n      Per Curiam.\n    ", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Simon Verdier vs. William B. Foster.
    
    As a debtor, discharged under the prison bounds Act, cannot he afterwards arrested under ca. sa. for the same debt, a bill in equity will, it seems, lie to compel him to satisfy the debt out of such after acquired interests, (choses in action, equities, &e.,) as cannot be reached by fi. fa. ; but a bill for that purpose must state some specific fund, equity, or chose, in which the debtor has an interest: a general charge that he has been in receipt of a large salary, lias acquired property by marriage, has drawn a large prize in a lottery, and is now in the possession or enjoyment of the use of property of considerable value, which cannot be reached at law, is insufficient.
    
      Before DaRGAN, Ch., at Charleston, March, 1850.
    This ease was heard on the bill, and a demurrer thereto filed by the defendant.
    The bill is as follows :
    Humbly complaining, show unto your Honors, your orator, Simon Verdier, that on or about the first day of June, A. D. 1839, your orator issued a writ of sei. fa. to revive a judgment then of record in the office of the clerk of the City Court of' Charleston, against William B. Foster, a resident of the city of Charleston, and subject’to the jurisdiction of the City Court of the said city of Charleston, and thereupon afterwards, to wit, on the day of January, A. D. 1840, recovered judg'ment against the said W. B. Foster for $457.71, with interest on the principal sum of $430.71, to be calculated from the 5th of November, A. D. 1819, which will more fully and at large appear, by reference to the records of the said judgment in the office of the clerk of the said Court, which is now wholly unsatisfied. That immediately after the recovery of the said judgment, your orator sued out of the said Court a writ of fi. fa., directed to the sheriff of said Court to make the money thereon according to law, which was shortly after returned by the said sheriff, and marked nulla Iona.
    
    And your orator further ■ sheweth, that the said William B. Foster has been for many years in the receipt of alargo salary, and has acquired property by marriage, and in other ways, and especially a large sum of money from a prize in a lottery, drawn some time before the said proceedings in sei. fa. were instituted. And your orator has been informed that the said William is now either in the possession or enjoyment of the use of property of considerable value, which cannot be 'reached by any process known to the law, but which is justly liable for the debts of the said defendant.
    And your orator further sheweth, that he is unable to compel the said defendant to assign his equitable interests in the said property, because many years ago the said defendant was arrested by virtue of a certain execution of ca. sa. to enforce his said original judgment, and was discharged from the said arrest by virtue of certain proceedings, instituted by said defendant, as an applicant for the benefit of the Prison Bounds Act, which were had and concluded before the acquisition of the said property and money, heroin before mentioned, whereby your orator is incapable of again arresting the person of the said defendant, to compel an assignment of his equitable interests in satisfaction of his said judgment, and is advised that he is altogether remediless at law in'the premises.
    
      And your orator further sheweth, that he has repeatedly applied to the said defendant to pay to him his said debt out of his equitable assets, which your orator is unable to discover, with which reasonable requests your orator well hoped the said defendant would have complied, as in justice and equity he ought to have done. But now so it is, may it please your Honors, that the said William B, Poster, combining and confederating, &c., &c., he !hath absolutely refused to comply with such requests, under various pretences; all which actings and doings, pretences and refusals, are contrary to equity and good conscience, and tend to the manifest injury and wrong of your orator in the premises. In consideration whereof, and for as much as your orator can. only have adequate relief in the premises in a Court of Equity, where matters of this nature are properly cognizable and re-lievable. To the end therefore that the said William B. Poster and his confederates, when discovered, may upon their several and respective corporal oaths, to the best and utmost of their several and respective knowledge, &c., full, &c., answer make to all and singular the matters aforesaid, and that as fully and particularly as if the same were here repeated, and they and every of them distinctly interrogated thereto ; and more especially that the said confederates may, in manner aforesaid, answer and set forth, whether the said defendant has not the possession of, or the enjoyment'of the use of any property, and of what property, and how the same is held, in what manner, and to what uses or trusts the same may be held, in which he has any equitable interest; and more particularly that he discover and set forth all bonds, notes, or other choses in action, bank stock, or shares of bank stock, and shares in the capital stock of any and all incorporated companies of every kind and description, and of private or public securities whatever, from which he derives or can derive any income or profits, or in which he has any equitable interest, in whatsoever condition, or in whatsoever names the same may be, and whether the same, or the increase arising therefrom, has been acquired by .marriage, or in whatsoever manner; or in case the said defendant shall have given, or delivered to any person or persons, any property of any description whatsoever, under any conditions, agreements, or reservations whatever, express or implied, by which the said donee or bailee is to return the same to the said defendant, or to hold or use the same in any way for the benefit of said defendant, whether said conditions, agreements, or reservations, can or cannot be enforced at law or equity, or their observance depends on the will and pleasure of the said donee or bailee, that in such case the said defendant shall discover and set forth the same, with the names of the said donee or bailee, and the terms of the said gift or bailment; and that the said use, income, profits, stocks, shares, and private and public securities, and other equitable interests, may be rendered available for the payment and satisfaction of your orator’s just claims, as aforesaid. And that the said defendant may be compelled to discover and set forth, and assign all his estate and interests, both in law and in equity, or so much thereof as may be sufficient for that purpose; and that your orator may have such further or other relief in the premises, as the nature and circumstances of the case may require, and to your Honors shall seem meet.
    May it please your Honors to grant unto your orator a writ of subpoena, &c.
    Hahg-AN, Ch. The discharge of an insolvent debtor under the Prison Bounds Act, (Act of 1788,) has the effect of exempting such debtor from being again arrested by capias on the same case, or under the same judgment, except where the debtor has committed a fraud in the manner of obtaining his discharge. Though his body is exempted from arrest, his subsequently acquired property is still liable for the debt, if the same be not satisfied with the effects assigned. Yisible or tangible property thus acquired is liable to be taken under a fieri facias for the satisfaction of so much of the debt as still subsists; but choses in action and equities cannot be reached by this process; and as they cannot be reached by a capias, on account of the exemption arising from the discharge, it follows that they can only be reached by the intervention of this Court. Where there are choses in action or equities, a resort to this jurisdiction would not only be proper, but would in fact be the only effectual means of relief.
    But the complainant must make out a proper case for the interference of the Court. He must make out some specific equity. He must charge that the defendant owns some particular chose, or that he has made some specific disposition of his assets, by way of trust, for the avoidance of his debts ; or that he has some interest in a specific fund or estate. He will not be permitted to speculate upon the jurisdiction of the Court on a mere hypothesis. All that the complainant charges in this bill may be true, and yet he may be entitled to no relief. He charges that the defendant has been in the receipt of a large salary, that he has drawn a lottery prize, and that he has acquired property by his marriage. He does not say how large the salary or the prize; nor that any of the money, or the investments thereof, now remain in the hands of the defendant or under his control, nor how they they are invested. He does not show what property the defendant has acquired by his wife, of what it consists; whether settled on his wife, or liable for the husband’s debts, or whether it is now in his hands. In fine, taking all that he says, to be true, he does not show that there is in existence any property or fund which the jurisdiction of this Court can reach for the satisfaction of his debt. Until he makes some such specific allegations, I do not think that the defendant is bound to answer.
    It is ordered and decreed, that the demurrer be sustained, and that the bill be dismissed.
    The complainant appealed, on the grounds :
    1. That it is expressly charged in the bill of complaint that the defendant was in the possession or enjoyment of the use of property of considerable value, which cannot be reached by any process known to the law, but which is justly liable for the debts of the defendant.
    2. That the Chancellor erred in considering that the right of the complainant to a discovery would be affected by Ms charging, more particularly' than he has done, what was the amount of the salary, or lottery prize, or the manner in which the property of the defendant, acquired by marriage, was settled; when it is sufficiently shown that there is property, of which the defendant has the use and enjoyment, secured in some way unknown to the complainant, from his execution, and his interest in which the defendant cannot be compelled to assign at law.
    3. That the discovery prayed for by the complainant is not a general discovery by way of speculation upon the jurisdiction of the Court, but is of such property as the defendant is charged as actually deriving income from; and that when the right of the complainant to satisfaction is sufficiently stated, and the inadequacy of his remedy at law is shown, the fact that the defendant has so secured his property, that its situation cannot be discovered by the complainant, except by the aid of this Court, affords sufficient ground for equitable relief; and the dismissing of the bill/' for such a reason would be an encouragement to the ingenuity of the fraudulent.
    4. If a discovery in such cases be refused by the Court, a fraudulent debtor who had been discharged from the liability to arrest under a capias ad satisfaciendum in any particular suit, or a female against whom a capias ad satisfaciendum cannot be issued, would be able to enjoy any amount of property, the mode of investing which could be concealed from the creditor.
    
      Northrop, for apjrellant.
    
      Campbell, contra.
   Per Curiam.

This Court concurs in the decree of the Chancellor, which is confirmed and the appeal dismissed ; and it is so ordered.

JOHNSTON, DuNKIN, Dargak and Wardlaw, CC., concurring.

Appeal dismissed.