Will v. Tornabells, 217 U.S. 47 (1910)
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Will v. Tornabells
No. 63
Submitted December 10, 1909
Decided March 14, 1910
217 U.S. 47
APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE
UNITED STATES FOR PORTO RICO
Syllabus
Findings of the lower court will not, where another construction is possible, be so construed as to cause them to be silent on an issue so controlling that the cause could not have been decided on the merits without a finding thereon.
Where findings are so irresponsive to the case made by the pleadings and the facts as to be no findings at all, this Court must affirm on account of absence of any findings to review. Gray v. Smith, 108 U.S. 12.
A finding that the evidence does not entitle the plaintiff to a decree that the conveyance attacked was made to hinder and delay creditors construed in this case to mean that there had been a failure of proof, and that the judgment did not rest on a conclusion of law that the local law did not afford a remedy if the plaintiff had proved his case.
Under the law of Porto Rico, contracts made by an insolvent debtor which are not fraudulent simulations are not susceptible of rescission merely because they operate to prefer a creditor.
While the privilege of communication may not extend to the concealment of crime, where an attorney testifies that the vendor disclosed to him a plan to make fraudulent conveyances to hinder and delay creditors, but the court finds that the conveyances as made were not under the local law illegal, the testimony is properly excluded, as there is no sufficient foundation to relieve the witness from the professional obligation of secrecy.
The statements made by the widow of the vendor whose conveyances were attacked to the effect that such conveyances were fraudulent were properly excluded in this case by the lower court.
The facts are stated in the opinion.