Mrs. Goldring sighed, dabbed her handkerchief to her nose, lowered it, said, “I believe you understand that my daughter’s husband is a sales engineer. It’s a business that’s very speculative. I don’t know just what it is that he does, but occasionally he takes complete charge of the distribution of some line of merchandise on a percentage basis.”
Bertha wasted no time making comments while the preliminaries were coming in.
“Of course, recently, there haven’t been any sales problems. It’s been a problem of getting materials. Manufacturers had more market than they knew what to do with. They couldn’t get the stuff to manufacture — and Everett Belder had some rather sharp reverses.”
Bertha contented herself with a nod.
“Some time ago he placed all his property in my daughter’s name.”
Bertha did not even nod, simply sat behind her desk, her eyes watching Mrs. Goldring in glittering concentration.
“Of course,” Mrs. Goldring went on, “it would be reasonable to suppose that he simply placed the property in Mabel’s name so that he would be safe from his creditors, but he took the witness-stand and denied upon oath that such was his intention in making the transfer. I don’t understand the law very well, Mrs. Cool, but as I understand it, the intention with which the transfer is made has a lot to do with it. If a person intends to defraud his creditors, the transfer is void. If he has some other, and legitimate, intent, the transfer stands up.”
“And this stood up?” Bertha asked.
“This stood up.”
“Then upon your daughter’s death the property which she held was her sole and separate property?”