FRAUDULENT CONVEYANCES, in law, a fraudulent conveyance is a conveyance the object, tendency or effect of which is to defraud another not a party to such a conveyance, or the intent of which is to avoid some debt or duty due by or incumbent on the party making it. Conveyances of this character are declared in valid by two celebrated English statutes which have been substantially re-enacted throughout the United States with the same provisions. The first of these statutes was passed in the 13thyear of the reign of Queen Elizabeth (1571), and commonly referred to as the stat ute 13 Eliz. chap. 5, and by it all fraudulent con veyances, gifts or alienations of lands or• goods whereby creditors might be in anywise dis turbed, hindered, delayed or defrauded of their just rights are rendered utterly void; but the statute does not extend to any estate or interest in lands on good consideration, and bona-fide conveyed to any person not having notice of such fraud. The second statute against fraud ulent conveyances is the statute 27 Eliz. chap. 4, which was passed in 1585. It provides that the conveyance of any interest in lands for the intent and purpose to defraud and deceive sub sequent bona-fide purchasers of the lands for a good and sufficient consideration shall be utterly void. This statute differs from the one first mentioned in applying solely to lands, and in protecting the interests of purchasers instead of creditors; but it contains similar provisions declaring the validity of any previous convey ance if it be upon valuable consideration and to a bona-fide purchaser. It has been held in
England, in the interpretation of this statute, that if the previous conveyance be voluntary it is void as to a subsequent purchaser, even if he had notice before he received his deed that such a conveyance had been made. This doc trine has been generally rejected by the courts throughout the United States as unjust, and the principle adopted that the receipt of notice gives a person intending to purchase sufficient op portunity to protect his own interests, and if he is guilty of imprudence in accepting the con veyance he should receive no assistance from the courts. This appears to be the more un objectionable doctrine. Voluntary conveyances are never set aside under either statute, as between the immediate parties, but only in favor of purchasers or creditors. Consult Bigelow, 'The Law of Fraudulent Conveyances' (Bos ton 1911) ; Hunt, 'The Law Relating to Fraudulent Conveyances' (London 1897) ; Moore, 'Treatise on Fraudulent Conveyances' (2 vols., Albany 1908). See FRAUD.