VOLUNTARY CONVEYANCE - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

VOLUNTARY CONVEYANCEAuthored

The Law Mind • 880 words

Definition

A voluntary conveyance is a transfer of property made without valuable consideration — that is, without payment, exchange of value, or other legal quid pro quo. The transferor parts with an interest in property out of affection, generosity, or legal obligation arising from relationship (such as to a spouse or child) rather than in exchange for something of market worth. A gift deed is the archetypal example. Love and affection, while sufficient consideration to support a contract in some limited contexts, does not constitute valuable consideration for purposes of distinguishing voluntary from bargained-for conveyances.

The term carries two related but distinct concerns in legal analysis:

1. Voluntary conveyance as against creditors. A conveyance made without valuable consideration may be voidable when the grantor was indebted at the time of the transfer. The concern is that debtors will strip themselves of assets by gifting them to family members, placing property beyond creditors' reach. English statutes — most significantly 13 Eliz. c. 5 (the Statute of Elizabeth 1571, protecting creditors) and 27 Eliz. c. 4 (1585, protecting subsequent purchasers) — codified this concern. Modern fraudulent transfer and fraudulent conveyance law descends directly from this framework.

2. Voluntary conveyance as against subsequent purchasers. A voluntary conveyance may be defeated by a later purchaser for valuable consideration who takes without notice of the prior voluntary transfer. This is the concern addressed by 27 Eliz. c. 4 and its successors in recording act doctrine.

Common Confusion

Voluntary conveyance is frequently conflated with fraudulent conveyance. They are not synonymous. A voluntary conveyance is defined solely by the absence of valuable consideration; it may be entirely honest and made with no intent to defraud. A fraudulent conveyance requires an additional element — actual or constructive intent to hinder, delay, or defraud creditors or purchasers. As Bouvier notes, a voluntary conveyance is not within the Elizabethan creditor-protection statutes "unless it is fraudulent." Researchers must not treat voluntariness as equivalent to fraud; the former is a factual characteristic of the transfer, while the latter is a legal conclusion requiring further inquiry.

Why It Matters in Research

Researchers working in pre-twentieth-century property, equity, and creditor-debtor materials will encounter voluntary conveyance constantly, and the term's analytical weight shifts depending on which statutory backdrop is in play. The two Elizabethan statutes — frequently cited as "13 Eliz." and "27 Eliz." in older sources — were adopted in whole or in part by most American states, and cases decided under them carry the terminology forward. Know which statute is being invoked before reading the result.

The modern successor doctrine is fraudulent transfer law, now largely codified in the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act (1984) or its successor, the Uniform Voidable Transactions Act (2014). These statutes use the phrase "without reasonably equivalent value" rather than "without valuable consideration," but the underlying concept is the same. When researching modern cases, the older vocabulary gives way to the uniform act language; when reading equity and common law sources, expect the classical framing.

A critical trap: historical sources discussing voluntary conveyances between spouses or parents and children often treat such transfers as presumptively suspicious without treating them as automatically void. The presumption was rebuttable and the equitable analysis was fact-intensive. Do not read categorical condemnation into references that merely flag the transfer as voluntary.

Recording act doctrine intersects here. Under race-notice and notice recording acts, a subsequent bona fide purchaser for value and without notice can defeat a prior unrecorded voluntary conveyance. Researchers connecting property records to title chain questions should track whether a prior transfer was voluntary, because that characteristic affects its priority against later claimants.

Historical Dictionary Support

Bouvier and Burrill agree on the core definition — a conveyance without valuable consideration — and both ground the term primarily in the Elizabethan statutes and their American progeny. Burrill is more specific about the typical factual context (deeds and settlements in favor of wives or children made by an indebted grantor), which accurately reflects how the term arose most frequently in equity litigation. Burrill's pointer to Kent's Commentaries (2 Kent's Com. 440–443) is genuinely useful: Kent synthesizes the English statute law and early American reception in a way that illuminates the doctrinal stakes.

Bouvier adds the important qualification — drawn from Cowper 434 — that voluntariness alone does not bring a conveyance within the fraudulent conveyance statutes. This preserves the analytical distinction between voluntary and fraudulent that later practitioners sometimes collapsed.

Neither historical source addresses the modern uniform act framework, which is expected given their dates. Neither discusses the shift in vocabulary from "valuable consideration" to "reasonably equivalent value," a distinction that carries real weight in contemporary litigation over the adequacy of consideration.

Jurisdictional Note

Most American states received the Elizabethan statutes either directly or through early territorial codifications, but the degree to which those statutes remain operative varies. States that have enacted the Uniform Voidable Transactions Act have largely displaced the old vocabulary while preserving the underlying doctrine. In community property states, transfers between spouses carry additional complexity that the common law voluntary conveyance framework does not fully address.

VOLUNTARY CONVEYANCEmain

Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928

A conveyance without any valuable consid- eration. Voluntary conveyances are discussed most frequently with reference to the stat- utes 18 Eliz. c. 5 (for the protection of creditors) and 27 Eliz. c. 4 (for the protec- tion of subsequent purchasers). A volun- tary conveyance, however, is not within these statutes unless it is fraudulent; Cowp. 434. And as between the parties a voluntary conveyance is generally good. In determining whether a voluntary conveyance is fraudulent and within the stat. 13 Eliz. c. 5, a distinction is made be- tween existing (or previous) and subse- quent creditors. An existing creditor, so called, is one who is a creditor at the time of the conveyance; and it was at one time held that, as against him, every voluntary conveyance by the debtor is fraudulent: 8 Wheat. 229; without regard to the amount of the debts, the extent of the property in settlement. or the circumstances of the debtor; 3 Johns. Ch. 500; but this rule is now subject to great modifications both in England and in the United States; see 1 Am. L. Cas. 37-40; and the conclusion to be drawn from the more recent cases is that the whole question depends in great measure on the ratio of the debts, not so much to the property the debtor parts with, as to that which he retains; 24 Pa. 511; 2 Beav. 344; 4 Drew. 632. A subse- quent creditor is one who becomes a cred- itor after the conveyance, and, as against him, a voluntary conveyance is not void unless actually fraudulent; 1 Am. L. Cas. 40; but there is great diversity in the defi- nition of the fraud of which he may avail himself; see 3 De G. J. & S. 293; L. R. 5 Ch. Ap. 518; 3 Johns. Ch. 501; 39 Pa. 400; 9 W. N. C. (Pa.) 353. Whenever a voluntary conveyance is made, a presumption of fraud properly arises upon the statute of 27 Eliz. c. 4, which presumption may be repelled by showing that the transaction on which the conveyance was founded virtually con- tained some conventional stipulations, some compromise of interests, or reciproc ity of benefits, that point out an object and motive beyond the indulgence of af- fection or claims of kindred. and not rec- oncilable with the supposition of intent to deceive a purchaser. But, unless so re- pelled, such a conveyance, coupled with a subsequent negotiation for sale, is conclu- sive evidence of statutory fraud. The principles of these statutes, though they may not have been substantially re enacted, prevail throughout the United States. General reference may be made to Hunt, Fraud. Conv.; May, Stats. of Eliz.; Bump, Fraud. Conv.; Note to Twyne's Case, 1 Sm. L. Cas. (cases to 1879 discussed in 18 Am. L. Reg. N. S. 187); Note to Sex- ton v. Wheaton, 1 Am. L. Cas.; Story, Eq. Jurisp. §§ 350-436.

VOLUNTARY CONVEYANCEmain

Burrill's Law Dictionary • 1870

A conveyance without valuable consideration, such as a deed or settlement in favor of a wife or children. The term is usually applied to conveyances made by parties who are indebted at the time of making them. See 2 Kent's Com. 440-443, and notes.

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