Sawado v. Endo case brief

Sawada v. Endo case brief summary
561 P.2d 1291 (Haw. 1977)

CASE SYNOPSIS

Plaintiff appealed from an order of the First Circuit Court (Hawaii), which entered judgment in favor of defendants in plaintiff judgment holder's action seeking to set aside a conveyance of real property as fraudulent.

CASE FACTS
Plaintiff judgment holders filed a complaint to set aside the conveyance of real property from defendant judgment debtor on the ground that the conveyance was fraudulent.

DISCUSSION

• The trial court refused to set aside the conveyance. 
• A tenancy by the entirety could not be used as a device to defraud existing creditors. 
• The debt arose subsequent to the creation of the estate, and plaintiffs' notice of the characteristics of the estate limited their right to reach the property. 
• Neither defendant, husband or wife, had a separate divisible interest in the property held by the entirety that could be conveyed or reached by execution.

CONCLUSION
Judgment refusing to set aside a conveyance of real property as fraudulent upheld, because neither defendant, husband or wife, had a separate divisible interest in the property held by the entirety that could be conveyed or reached by execution.


NOTES

• P sisters, who were injured when struck by a car driven by D and unable to obtain satisfaction of their judgments from D’s personal property, sought to set aside a conveyance by D and his wife of some land which had been held by them as tenants by the entirety.

1. Rule: The interest of one spouse in real property, held in tenancy by the entirety, is not subject to levy and execution by his or her individual creditors absent consent of both parties.
2. About half the states continue to recognize tenancy by the entirety as a valid institution. The majority of these states are aligned with Sawada on the interpretation of the Married Women’s Act: one spouse alone cannot assign his or her interest in a tenancy by the entirety. This if of great significance for general creditors, as they can only reach property which the debtors can voluntarily assign. This consequence of tenancy by the entirety is one of its primary attractions.

1. One cotenant cannot obtain adverse possession against another unless the possessing tenant makes clear to the nonpossessory tenant that he is asserting full ownership rights in the property to the exclusion of the other cotenants. need ouster