Briefs and Motions

Sawada v. Endo
a.    Facts: after losing a personal injury lawsuit to P, D conveyed property to their sons in order to avoid having it taken for the damages of the personal injury lawsuit
b.    Issue: is the interest of one spouse in real property, held in tenancy by the entireties, subject to levy and execution by his or her individual creditors.
c.    Rule: the interest of a husband or a wife in an estate by the entireties is not subject to the claims of his or her individual creditors during the joint lives of the spouses.
d.    Holding: No, the conveyance of the marital property by Kokichi Endo and Ume Endo, husband and wife, to their sons, was not in fraud of Kokichi Endo’s judgment creditors.
e.    Judgment: Affirmed
f.    Rationale:
•    Tenants by the entirety are each deemed to be seized of the entirety from the time of the creation o the estate.
•    Neither husband nor wife has a separate divisible interest in the property held by the entirety that can be conveyed or reached by execution.
•    Not unfair to creditors because they are not entitled to special consideration. If the debt arose prior to the creation of the estate, the property was not a bases of credit, and if the debt arose subsequently the creditor presumably had notice of the characteristics of the estate which limited his right to reach the property.