The statute 13 Eliz. c. 5, enacts that " all conveyances, &c., of lands and tenements, goods and chattels, made of malice, fraud, covin, col lusion, or guile, for the intent or purpose of delaying or defrauding creditors and others of their just and lawful actions, suits, debts, &c. shall be deemed and taken (only as against those persons, their heirs, successors, executors, &c.) to be clearly and utterly void, frustrate, and of none effect ; any pretence, colour, feigned consideration, expressing of use, or any other matter or thing to the contrary notwithstanding." But the act is expressed not to extend to any interest or estate made, conveyed, or assured, upon good consideration and bond fide, to any person or persons " not having at the time of any such conveyance or assurance to them made any manner of notice or knowledge of such covin, fraud, or collusion as is aforesaid." Upon this statute it has been determined, (1) That if the settler be not indebted at the time, the settlement, even though entirely voluntary, is good against subse quent creditors; (2) That the mere existence of debts at the date of the settlement will not invalidate it if the settlor be solvent—that is, if he be possessed of property sufficient for the payment of his debts independent of the property so aliened ; (3) That a settlement which might have been invalidated in the hands of the donee will be good against the creditors of the donor in the bands of a purchaser from the donee for valuable consideration without notice.
Voluntary obligations not affecting particular property, such as bonds, though the grantor should have been solvent at the time of making them, will not, it seems, entitle the grantee to come in pan paws with creditors for value, who will always be preferred ; but the cancellation or release of a voluntary obligation, if untainted by fraud, may form a valuable consideration for the conveyance of property or for a substituted engagement.
By the 27 Eliz. c. 4, all conveyances, &c., of lands, tenements, or hereditaments are declared void when made with intent to defraud subsequent purchasers for money or other good consideration ; " any pretence, colour, feigned consideration, or expressing of any use or uses, to the contrary notwithstanding." There is a saving of all con veyances made upon good consideration and bond fide. It also makes void, as against the same persons, all conveyances " with any clause, provision, article, or condition of revocation, determination, or alteration at (the grantor's) will or pleasure," whether ouch clause extend to the whole interest conveyed, or only partially affect it ; but then follows a proviso " that no lawful mortgage made bond fide, and without fraud or covin, upon good consideration, shall be impeached or impaired by force of this act." This statute has been construed to extend to all voluntary conveyances, though not in fact made with intent to defraud, and though the purchaser had notice of the prior conveyance. The
consequence of this is, though probably not intended by the framers of the Act, that it is impossible to make an irrevocable free gift of lands or tenements.
The statute 27 Eliz. c. 4, does not apply to personal estate. It has been determined on this act, by analogy to the determination on the last-mentioned act as to creditors, that a purchaser from a volun tary grantee will be preferred to a subsequent purchaser from the grantor. The good consideration mentioned in this and the preceding statute must be a valuable consideration (that is to say), either a pro perty or marriage consideration. The consideration of blood has no appli cation to either of these statutes, and therefore a conveyance made in con sideration of "natural love and affection," as in the case of a postnuptial settlement upon a wife and children, is considered,.for the purposes of these statutes, as voluntary. It has been decided, however, that a hus band, having made a voluntary settlement on his wife and children, has no equity to compel specific performance of his contract with a subse quent purchaser; but he can sell the property which he has so settled, and the purchaser will have a good title, and can enforce performance of the contract for sale, if the husband should refuse to convey the property.
By stat. 21 Jac. I., e. 19, all. voluntary settlements of traders were invalidated by their bankruptcy, though they might have been solvent at the time of making them ; but the stat. 6 Geo. IV., c. 16, B. 73, and 12 & 13 Viet., c. 106, s. 126, placed the settlements of traders on the same footing with voluntary alienations in general.
Property cannot be settled so that the interest taken by any person under the settlement shall be unaffected by his bankruptcy ; but it may be given to a man until he shall become bankrupt, provided there is a gift over of the property on that event. In the same manner the property coming from the wife may be settled ou the husband so as to be devested on his bankruptcy. But when the property is the hus band's own, it has been determined that, though the claims of the husband's creditors might have been defeated by a trust of the whole for the separate use of the wife, a limitation of the property to the husband until his bankruptcy, with a gift over in that event to the wife or any other person, is void. Upon the same principle, a bond or other obligation given by the husband upon his marriage, conditional for the payment of a sum of money to trustees for his wife and children in the event of his bankruptcy, is void as against his creditors who claim under the fiat or adjudication, if he has received no portion with his wife ; but if he has received a portion with her, the obliga tion, being considered so far as a settlement of the wife's property, will be good against the creditors to the extent of it.