US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS
PEARSALL V. SMITH, 149 U. S. 231 (1893)
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Pearsall v. Smith, 149 U.S. 231 (1893)
Pearsall v. Smith
No. 198
Argued and submitted April 18, 1893
Decided May 1, 1893
149 U.S. 231
Syllabus
An assignee in bankruptcy brought a suit in equity in September, 1886, to set aside transfers of property made by the bankrupt in 1874 in fraud of creditors, and recorded prior to June, 1875. He had been declared a bankrupt in August, 1878, and the assignment in bankruptcy had been made in February, 1879. The answers set up the statute of limitations of the State of six years and the bankruptcy statute limitation of two years. Judgment creditors of the bankrupt included in his schedules in bankruptcy brought a suit in the supreme court of the state in July, 1875, against the present defendants to set aside as fraudulent the conveyances in question, and duly filed a lis pendens, in which suit the same charges were made as in the present suit. The bill alleged that a decree was made in that suit, in favor of the plaintiffs, in November, 1885, and that it was not until the assignee in bankruptcy was informed of that decree in July, 1886, that he received knowledge or information of the transfers of the property or of any facts or circumstances relating thereto or tending to show or to lead to inquiry to any fraudulent transfer. The bill did not set forth what were the impediments to an earlier prosecution of the claim, how the plaintiff came to be so long ignorant of his rights, the means, if any, used by the defendants fraudulently to keep him in ignorance, or how and when he first obtained knowledge of the matters alleged in the bill. Held that the case was a clear one in favor of the bar of limitation both by the state statute and by the bankruptcy statute.
The case is stated in the opinion. After hearing counsel for appellant, the Court declined to hear further argument. chanrobles.com-red