Gaither v. . Mumford

I do not think it necessary to decide the question raised in this cause, whether the possession of a chattel remaining in the mortgagor after the execution of the mortgage constitutes, per se in point of law, a fraud, as I am of opinion that we are not to look upon this transaction as a mortgage. Between the parties to it, I suppose it would be such; but as to third persons, it clearly is not. The deed is absoluteupon the face. In that shape it is spread on record; the public see it so, and know, and can know nothing to the contrary, because the bond or defeasance, as it is called, is not an…