Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 10.djvu/138

126 federal bbpobteb. �In Equity. �Action by the plaintiff, as assignee in bankruptcy of Eugene M. Cammeyer, to set aside as fraudaient and void against creditors a mortgage for $1,000 made by the defendant Sarah Pish to Augustus Cammeyer, and by him assigned to defendant Patrick Lambert. The facts, as admitted or proved, were as follows : �On the twenty-ninth of January, 1874, Eugene Cammeyer executed to his mother, Sarah Fish, a deed of the house and lot 151 Bergen street, Brooklyn, where they both lived, subject to a prior mortgage of $4,000, for the consid- eration of $10 and natural love and affection. The deed was at the time handed to his mother, who was told what it was. It was immediately taken back by Eugene, who kept it in his possession until he caused it to be recorded on March 6, 1874. Eugene Cammeyer was then in business in New York, had beeome embarassed, and the conveyance to his mother was intended for his own future use. On the second of March, 1874, for the purpose of raising money for the benefit of Eugene, his mother executed the bond and mortgage in question for $1,000 to Augustus Cammeyer, brother of Eugene, without consideration, which was recorded on the eighteenth of March, and was designed to be negotiated and money raised upon it by the sale and assign- ment of it to some purchaser. Similar sales of second mortgages were fre- quent at that time. It was ofEered by Augustus to the defendant Lambert at a discount of 15 per cent., who examined the property himself, and employed his son, an attorney, to examine the title, and both being found satisfactory, Lambert, on the twenty-flrst of March, paid $850 and received from Augustus Cammeyer an assignment of the bond and mortgage, which was recorded on that day. The assignment eontained an express covenant that the whole amount of the mortgage was owing upon it, and that there was no defence or offset thereto. Of the $850, $114.50 was applied at the time of the assign- ment in payment of taxes upon the property for the year 1873, and the balance, $735.50, was paid over to Augustus Cammeyer, by whom it was gi ven to Eugene. �Lambert was a builder in Brooklyn, accustomed to buy second mortgages, and 15 per cent, discount was not an unusual rate at that time. Lambert had no previous acquaintance with or knowledge of either of the Cammeyjers or Mrs. Fish, and no knowledge of the business of Eugene in New York, but was informed that they lived with their mother in the house in question. The negotiation of the sale of the mortgage was conducted entirely by Augustus, and Eugene did not appear In the transaction. �On the nineteenth of March, 1874, a petition in bankruptcy was flled against Eugene Cammeyer in New York, on which an adjudication was had, and the plaintift' appointed assignee on the twenty-ninth of April following. Lambert had no knowledge or notice of the proceedings in bankruptcy against Eugene when he took the assignment of the mortgage from Augustus Cammeyer, two days af terwards. On the flrst of May, Mrs. Fish conveyed the property to the assignee by bargain and sale deed. Afterwards the plaintiff commenced this suit, asking that the conveyance to Mrs. Fish be declared void, as made in fraud of creditois, and that the mortgage and assignment of it to Lambert be ��� �