CHAPTER XXX.

FRAUDULENT CONVEYANCES AND ASSIGNMENTS.

Sec. 1120. INTENT TO DEFRAUD CREDITORS.-Every conveyance or assignment, in writing or otherwise, of any estate or interest in lands or rents and profits issuing from the same, or in goods or things in action, and every charge upon the same, and every bond or other evidence of debt given, or judgment or decree suffered, with the intent to hinder, delay, or defraud creditors or other persons having just claims or demands of their lawful suits, damages, or demands, shall be void as against the persons so hindered, delayed, or defrauded: Provided, That nothing herein shall be construed to affect or impair the title of a purchaser for a valuable consideration, unless it shall appear that such purchaser had previous notice of the fraudulent intent of his immediate grantor, or of the fraud rendering void the title of such grantor: Provided further, That the question of fraudulent intent shall be deemed a question of fact and not of law.

Sec. 1121. INTENT TO DEFRAUD PURCHASERS.-Every conveyance of any estate or interest in land or the rents and profits thereof, and every charge upon the same, made or created with the intent to defraud prior or subsequent purchasers for a valuable consideration of the same lands, rents, or profits, shall, as against such purchasers, be void; but no such conveyance or charge shall be deemed fraudulent in favor of a subsequent purchaser who shall have actual or legal notice thereof at the time of his purchase, unless it appear that the grantee in such conveyance, or the person to be benefited by such charge, was privy to the fraud intended.

Sec. 1122. EXECUTORS, AND SO FORTH, MAY SUE TO VACATE FRAUDULENT DEED. Any executor, administrator, receiver, assignee, or other trustee of an estate, or of the property and effects of an insolvent estate, corporation, association, partnership, or individual, may, for the benefit of creditors and others interested in the estate or property so held in trust, disaffirm, treat as void, and resist all acts done, transfers and agreements made in fraud of the rights of any creditor, including themselves and others interested in any estate or property held by or of right belonging to any such trustee or estate; and every person who in fraud of the rights of creditors and others shall have received, taken, or in any manner interfered with the estate, property, or effects of any deceased person or insolvent corporation, association, partnership, or individual shall be liable, in the proper action, to the executors, administrators, receivers, or other trustees of such estate or property for the same, or the value of any property or effects so received or taken, and for all damages caused by such acts to any such

trust estate.

CHAPTER XXXI.

GUARDIAN AND WARD.

Sec. 1123. NATURAL GUARDIANS.-The father and mother shall be the natural guardians of the person of their minor children. If either dies or is incapable of acting, the natural guardianship of the person shall devolve upon the other: Provided, however, That in case of the death of either parent from whom said children shall inherit or take by devise or bequest, such parent may by deed or last will and testament appoint a guardian of the property of the children, subject to the approval of the proper court of the District of Columbia: And provided further, That nothing herein contained shall be held to limit or affect the power of a court of equity to appoint some other person guardian of such children when it shall be made to appear to said court that the welfare of said children requires it.

Sec. 1124. TESTAMENTARY GUARDIANS.--Every father or mother, whether of full age or not, when the other parent does not survive, may, by last will. and testament, appoint a guardian of the person to have the care, custody, and tuition of his or her infant child, not being a married female; and if the person so appointed shall refuse the trust, said court may appoint another person in his place.

Sec. 1125. APPOINTMENT BY COURT.-If any infant shall have neither natural nor testamentary guardian, a guardian of the person may be appointed by the probate court in its own discretion or on the application of any next friend of such infant.

Sec. 1126. WHEN GUARDIANSHIP CEASES.-The natural guardianship or the appointive guardianship of the person aforesaid shall cease, in the case of a male infant when he is twenty-one years of age, and in the case of a female infant when she is eighteen years of age or marries.

Sec. 1127. WHEN GUARDIAN OF ESTATE IS APPOINTED BY COURT. Subject to the provisions of the preceding sections of this chapter, whenever land shall descend or be devised to any infant under twentyone years of age, or such infant shall be entitled to a distributive share of the personal estate of an intestate, or to a legacy or bequest under a last will, or shall acquire any real or personal property by gift or purchase, the said court may appoint a guardian of said infant's estate; and if there shall be a guardian of the person of such infant the guardian of the estate so appointed may be the same or a different person. The said appointment may be made at any time after the probate of the will or the grant of administration where the infant is entitled as devisee, legatee, or next of kin.

Sec. 1128. PREFERENCES.-Whenever it shall be necessary for the court to appoint a guardian of the infant's estate, as aforesaid, the

father, if living, or, if he be dead, then the mother, if living, or, if the infant be a married female her husband, shall have the preference over other persons, unless the infant be over fourteen years of age, as hereinafter directed: Provided, That in the judgment of the court the parent or husband so entitled shall be a suitable person to have the management of the infant's estate.

Sec. 1129. HUSBAND OR PARENT ENJOINED. On the application of any friend of an infant entitled to real or personal estate, or in the exercise of its own discretion, the court may enjoin any parent or husband or testamentary guardian of such infant from interfering with said infant's estate without being appointed and giving bond as guardian of such estate.

Sec. 1130. CONSENT OF INFANT. -When it shall be necessary to appoint a guardian, either of the person or the estate, of an infant, the infant shall, if practicable, be brought before the court, and, if over the age of fourteen years, shall be entitled to select and nominate his or her guardian; and if a guardian shall have been appointed before the infant has attained the age of fourteen years, the said infant, upon arriving at said age, may select a new guardian, notwithstanding the appointment before made: Provided, however, That the court shall, in all cases, approve the character and competency of the guardian selected by the infant, and such guardian shall be under the same obligations and discharge the same duties as if selected by the court; and whenever, after a guardian of the estate has been previously appointed, the infant shall select a new guardian upon arriving at the age of fourteen years, and said new selection is approved by the court, and the person so selected is duly appointed and qualified, the guardian previously appointed shall settle his final account and turn over his ward's estate to the newly appointed guardian.

Sec. 1131. BOND OF GUARDIAN.-Every guardian appointed by the court, except corporations authorized to act as guardians, before entering upon or taking possession of or interfering with the estate of the infant, shall execute a bond to the United States in such penalty and with such surety or sureties as the court shall approve, to be recorded and to be liable to be put in suit for the use of any person interested, with the following condition:

as guardian to

"The condition of the above obligation is such that if the above bounden shall faithfully account to the court, as required by law, for the management of the property and estate of the infant under his care, and shall also deliver up said property agreeably to the order of the court or the directions of law, and shall in all respects perform the duty of guardian to the said according to law, then the above obligation shall cease; it shall otherwise remain in full force and virtue.'

-Where the same per

Sec. 1132. ONE BOND FOR SEVERAL WARDS. son is guardian to any number of persons entitled to shares of the same estate the court may accept one bond instead of separate bonds for each ward, and said bond shall be liable to be put in suit for the use of all or either of the wards as fully as separate bonds might be.

Sec. 1133. POSSESSION TO GUARDIAN.-On the execution of his bond, as required as aforesaid, the guardian shall be entitled to an order of the court directing the real and personal estate of the ward to be

delivered into his possession, and all legacies and distributive shares to which the ward may be entitled to be paid or delivered to him whenever they shall be properly payable or distributable according to law.

Sec. 1134. INVENTORY.-Every guardian, within three months after the execution and approval of his bond, shall return to the court, under oath, an inventory of the real and personal estate of his ward and of the probable annual income thereof, and the court may direct the said estate to be appraised and the annual income thereof to be ascertained by two competent persons, to be appointed by the court, who shall report their appraisement and finding under oath.

Sec. 1135. AccoUNTS.-It shall be the duty of the guardian to manage the estate for the best interests of the ward, and once in each year, or oftener if required, he shall settle an account of his trust, under oath. He shall account for all profit and increase of his ward's estate and the annual value thereof, and shall be allowed credit for taxes, repairs, improvements, expenses, and commissions not exceeding ten per centum of the principal of the personal estate and on the annual income of the estate, and shall not be answerable for any loss or decrease sustained without his fault; and the court shall determine the amounts to be annually expended in the maintenance and education of the infant, regard being had to his future condition and prospects in life; and the court, if it shall deem it advantageous to the ward, may allow the guardian to exceed the income of the estate and to make use of the principal and sell the same or part thereof, under its order, as hereinbefore provided in subchapter three of chapter one; but no guardian shall sell any property of his ward without an order of the court previously had therefor.

Sec. 1136. SALE OF REALTY.-Whenever any guardian shall think that the interests of his ward will be promoted by a sale of his real estate for the purpose of reinvesting the proceeds in other property or securities, he may make application therefor to the court, and such proceeding shall be had thereupon as directed in subchapter three of chapter one, aforesaid.

Sec. 1137. ALLOWANCES.-Any allowance which may be made to a guardian for the clothing, support, maintenance, education, or other expenses incurred for the ward or his estate, before said guardian shall have given bond or been appointed, shall have the same effect and operation in law as if the same had been made subsequently to the appointment of said guardian and his giving bond.

Sec. 1138. SURETY.-If any surety of a guardian, setting forth by petition that he apprehends himself to be in danger of suffering by said suretyship, shall pray to be relieved, the court, after service of a summons on the guardian to answer the petition, may order him to give counter security for the indemnity of the original surety, or to deliver the ward's estate into the hands of the surety or of some other person; in either of which cases the person into whose hands the ward's estate shall be delivered shall be required to give sufficient security for the proper management and application of the same, and such further order may be passed for the relief of the petitioner as may seem just.

Sec. 1139. FINAL ACCOUNT. -On the arrival of any ward at the age of twenty-one years the guardian shall exhibit a final account of his trust to the court, and shall deliver up, agreeably to the court's order, to the ward all the property of said ward in his hands, including bonds and other securities, and on his failure so to do his bond may be put in suit in the name of the United States for the use of the party interested, and he may be attached, as herein elsewhere provided.

Sec. 1140. HUSBAND AS GUARDIAN. Whenever any female infant, to whom a guardian of her estate has been appointed, shall marry she may select her husband as the guardian of her said estate, with the approval of the court, and after he is duly appointed and qualified by giving bond, as is required in other cases, the powers of the guardian previously appointed shall cease, and he shall settle his final account and turn over his ward's estate to her husband, agreeably to the order and directions of the court.

Sec. 1141. NONRESIDENT INFANT OR LUNATIC. -Whenever any infant or lunatic residing without the District, but within the United States, is entitled to property in the District or to maintain any action therein, a general guardian of his estate, appointed by a court of competent jurisdiction in the State or Territory where said infant or lunatic resides, may apply to the court, by petition, for ancillary letters of guardianship. Said petition must be under oath and be accompanied with duly certified copies of so much of the record and proceedings [showing] as shows the appointment of said guardian, and that he has given a sufficient bond to account for all property and money that may come into his hands by virtue of the authority hereby conferred. The court may thereupon issue to said guardian ancillary letters of guardianship, without bond and without citation, or may cite such persons as it may think proper, to show cause why the said application should be refused.

Sec. 1142. SUITS BY ANCILLARY GUARDIAN. Upon the granting of said ancillary letters the said guardian shall be entitled to institute and prosecute to judgment any action in the courts of the District, to take possession of all property of his said ward, and collect and receive all moneys belonging and due to him therein, to give full receipt and acquittances for debts and to release all claims, liens, and mortgages to him belonging, on property in said District, in the same manner as if his authority had been originally conferred by the supreme court of said District: Provided, That said guardian shall be required to give security for the costs which may accrue in any action brought by him, in the same manner as other nonresidents bringing suit in the courts of said District.