United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Wood v. Carpenter, 101 U.S. 135 (1879)

Wood v. Carpenter

101 U.S. 135

Syllabus

The statutes of Indiana provide that "an action for relief against frauds shall be commenced within six years," and that

"if any person liable to an action shall conceal the fact from the person entitled thereto, the action may be commenced at any time within the period of limitation after the discovery of the cause of action."

A., who had recovered judgment in 1860 in a court of that state against B., brought suit in 1812 alleging that the latter, in 1858, in order to defraud his creditors, confessed judgments, encumbered his property, and in 1862 transferred his real and personal estate to sundry persons who held the same in secret trust for him; that on being arrested in 1862 upon final process to compel the payment of A.'s judgment, he deposed that he was not worth twenty dollars, and had in good faith assigned all his property to pay his creditors; that A., believing the statement and relying upon the representations of B. that C., his son-in-law, would with his own means purchase the judgment for fifty cents of the principal and interest, sold it in 1864 to C.; that he has since discovered that the money he received therefor belonged to B., that the latter has now an indefeasible title to the property, and that said judgment has been entered satisfied. Held that the statute of limitations commenced running when the alleged fraud was perpetrated, and that it is not avoided by a replication averring that B. fraudulently concealed the facts in the declaration mentioned, touching the encumbering or the conveying of the property, the confession of judgments, and his real ownership of the property, and that A. had no knowledge of them until a short time before the suit was brought.

The facts are stated in the opinion of the Court.