Byrd v. Bradley

Judge Marshall

delivered the Opinion of the Court.

Every mortgage or deed of trust, by which a debtor conveys the whole of his property, for the security of a part only of his debts, tends necessarily to hinder and delay his other creditors, to some extent, and may, perhaps, defeat them altogether in the collection of their debts; and yet it seems to be well established that a debtor may prefer’a portion of his creditors, by appropriating his property, either to their immediate payment or to the security of their demands, within a reasonable time, if he do so in good faith and without a…