Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/457

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4S0 FEDERAL REFOBTBB. �These allegations on the one side and deniais on the other present the issue in the case, and it is one of fact, chieay, if not entirely. �Was, then, this conveyance of October 17, 1873, of the lots in Stratford, made to hinder, delay, or defraud creditors, or was it not ? �If it was, under the provisions of section 5046, page 981, of the United States Eevised Statutes, the complainant would be entitled to recover the land, as against these respondents, and to have the conveyance set aside and decreed null. �But if the conveyance was not made for such a purpose on the part of either of said respondents, or was not made for Buch a purpose on the part of the Wilders, and they had no knowledge of such a purpose on the part of Allen, and there was nothing to put them on an inquiry as to such a purpose, and the trade by them was made in good faith, then the convey- ance must stand. �On this issue the burden of proof is on the complainant. He must prove the fraud which he alleges, and make his proof so strong as to overcome the answers which have been made, under oath, by the respondents. �This, we think, he has failed to do. He bas produced many witnesses, but much of the testimony is very remote from the case, and some entirely immaterial. �We have, however, considered the whole of it carefuUy, and have endeavored to give it its proper weight; but upon the whole evidence, on the one side and the other, we do not find that the conveyance was made to hinder, delay, or de- fraud creditors, by either Allen or the Wilders, or that thera was anything oonnected with tho transaction which ehould bave put the WUders on inquiry, �Allen desired to sell the land because it had been unprofit- able to him, and the Wilders bought it for the younger to take off the lumber. As to the other prayer of the bill, that Willis Wilder be ordered and decreed to pay to the complain- ant the amount of the note given by him to Eichard H. Wilder for his half of the land, and that Richard be ordered to surrender said note to the complainant, it cannot be granted ����