Opinion of the Court. Pearce fell through, a written contract was made between Frellsen and Hood, on the 26th of October, 1868, in the following terms: "It has been agreed between Henry Frellsen, of the city of New Orleans, and Govy Hood, of the parish of Carroll, Louisiana, as follows: 100 "Whereas the said Frellsen did, on the 5th September last, purchase at sheriff's sale, under an execution issued upon a judgment obtained by him in the District Court of said parish against the said Hood for the sum of thirty-nine thousand three hundred and nineteen dollars, with interest as stated therein, certain property belonging to said Hood, consisting of lands and plantations, as follows: The plantation on Lake Providence occupied by said Hood, known as the Home Place, and the plantation on said Lake Providence, known as the Black Bayou Place, and also the undivided half of the plantation known as the Hood & Wilson Place, and certain lots and lands adjoining, all which are described in the act of sale made by the sheriff of Carroll to said Frellsen and of record; "And whereas the said Frellsen does not desire to speculate on the said Hood, or to take any advantage of him or his family, or to do more than to secure the balance due him on his said judgment, after crediting the same with the amount of the sale of the property on said lake, known as the Wilson Place, and sold under a mortgage and judgment held by said. Frellsen against Geo. G. Wilson; "Now, the said Frellsen hereby stipulates and promises as follows: That he will sell and transfer the above named property to the said Hood, or to his assigns, without any warranty, however, of any nature, as to the title to said property or the encumbrances upon it, of all which said Hood is fully informed, upon condition that said Hood, or his assigns, as the case may be, punctually pay said Frellsen the balance due upon his said judgment, less the credit above stated, as follows: Seven thousand dollars on or before the 15th day of December next, and eight thousand dollars annually from that date for four years, and the balance at the end of five years from the 15th December next, and also all costs and expenses attending said sheriff's Opinion of the Court. sale, and other incidental expenses attending this arrangement, and all taxes now due or which may become due hereafter on said property, and also pay to Sparrow and Montgomery two thousand five hundred dollars, in four equal annual payments, from 15th December next, with 8 per cent interest thereon from that date, it being understood that the failure of the said Hood or his assigns to punctually pay any of the amounts above stated at the dates fixed is to operate as a discharge and to release the said Frellsen from all his obligations hereon. The costs and expenses named above are to be paid on or before the 15th December next. "The said Frellsen agrees further that he will lease to said Hood, or to his assigns, the said property, from year to year, whilst this agreement is in force, until he is paid in full, for such annual rent as he may think just, not, however, to exceed $8000 a year, with the understanding that he will credit the rent which may be paid him upon the yearly instalments as above stated; and, further, that if the said Hood or his assigns fail to pay punctually any of the annual instalments as above stated, after having paid one or more of them, and this agreement has become null and void thereby, the said Frellsen will pay back to him or his assigns any surplus remaining, after deducting all interest which might accrue on the said above named judgment from this date. "Witness our hands this 26th day of October, 1868. "GOVY HOOD. "HENRY FRELLSEN." Hood failed to pay the amount provided to be paid on the 15th of December, 1868. On the 29th of December, 1868, he filed a voluntary petition in bankruptcy, in the District Court of the United States for the District of Louisiana, and was adjudged a bankrupt on the 26th of January, 1869. Emory E. Norton was appointed his assignee in bankruptcy, and the usual assignment was made to Norton. Hood received his discharge in bankruptcy on January 27th, 1871. Opinion of the Court. In the latter part of the year 1869, Frellsen sold and conveyed the Black Bayou Plantation to one Alling for the sum of $32,000, upon a credit. He had also collected $2212 on the sale of the Wilson Place, mentioned in the agreement of October 26, 1868, and had received, as proceeds of cotton grown on the plantations after the seizure and sale of 1868, and accepted by him in payment of rent, $5598.92. On the 1st of May, 1871, an account current was stated between Hood and Frellsen, charging Hood with the amounts of the seven notes dated February 15, 1862, and with the $300 for the insurance premiums, and with interest on those amounts to the 13th of February, 1866, making due on the last named date $49,921.52, and charging him with interest thereon to January 14, 1869, viz.; $11,648.85, and with the sheriff's fees on the sale of the property, $237, making a total amount due by him, January 14, 1869, of $61,807.37. The account credited him, on the last named date, with the proceeds of the cotton, $5598.92 leaving a balance due on that date of $56,208.45. It then charged him with interest on that amount to January 1, 1870, namely, $4320.38, making the amount due on the last named date $60,528.83. It then credited him, on that date, with $32,000 as the proceeds of the sale of the Black Bayou Plantation, and with $2212 collected on the Wilson note, leaving due, January 1, 1870, $26,316.83, to which was added, for the taxes of 1869, $721.50, and interest to May 1, 1871, $3113.68, making due on the last named date, by Hood to Frellsen, $30,152.03. On the 1st of May, 1871, Frellsen executed a deed to Hood, conveying to him (1) the Home Place, containing 1500 acres, (2) the south half of the Hood and Wilson Place, containing 346 acres, (the Hood and Wilson Place having been partitioned between Frellsen and the Wilson heirs in May, 1870, and the south half of it, containing 346 acres, having been set off to Frellsen,) and (3) the 1992.75 acres, for the consideration of $30,152, (being the amount stated to be due by the amount current,) payable in six equal annual instalments, for which Hood gave six notes for $5025.33 each, bearing 8 per cent interest from May 1, 1871, payable respectively at one, Opinion of the Court. two, three, four, five, and six years after date, to the order of Frellsen. The conveyance, which was executed also by Hood, declared that Hood specially mortgaged and hypothecated to Frellsen all the property so conveyed, and contained a pact de non alienando. Hood went into possession of the property, but did not make any payments upon any of the notes. On the 24th of December, 1874, Frellsen obtained from the Thirteenth Judicial District Court for the parish of Carroll an order of executory process, in a suit then brought by him in that court against Hood, ordering the seizure and sale of the property covered by the instrument of May 1, 1871. Notice of the order was served upon Hood. Thereupon, Hood commenced a suit by petition against Frellsen in the same District Court. The petition alleged that certain credits ought to be allowed on the six notes, which sums the petitioner pleaded in compensation and payment of the claim of Frellsen. The petition also prayed for an injunction against further proceedings in the seizure and sale of the property, and for a judgment that the six notes were paid, and for a further judgment in favor of Hood against Frellsen for $8000, as the amount due him by Frellsen in excess of the notes. By an amended petition, Hood prayed a trial by jury. He also filed another amended petition, in which he set forth that the sale under the executions on the judgment of April 2d, 1866, was in effect a consent conveyance; that it was agreed that Frellsen should take title to the property as security for his debt; that Hood was to continue to reside on the Home Place as before, which he did; that Frellsen was to lease out the land and collect the rents, and credit Hood with the amount on the indebtedness evidenced by the judgment; that it was also agreed that Hood should have the right to negotiate a sale of the property, and Frellsen should pass the title, and collect the price, and credit Hood with the amount on the judgment debt; that, accordingly, the Black Bayou Place was conveyed to Alling for $32,000; that Frellsen was to reconvey to Hood the legal title to the remainder of the property after the payment of the judgment; that, in pursuance of such agreement, Frellsen, in May, 1871, reconveyed such title to Hood; that, Opinion of the Court. at that time, Hood was induced by the agent of Frellsen to sign the mortgage notes, whereas in fact he did not then owe Frellsen anything; that he was old, ignorant, feeble in body and mind, and broken down and crushed by his misfortunes and losses in the war; and that the entire business, as well as the bankruptcy proceedings, were gotten up by the agent of Frellsen, in the interest of Frellsen and said agent, for the purpose of defeating other creditors of Hood and of defrauding him. On the commencement of the suit by Hood, he obtained an injunction forbidding a sale by Frellsen. Frellsen answered the petition, denying its allegations, averring that Hood had received all the credits to which he was entitled, and set up as a defence the fact that Hood had been discharged in bankruptcy on the 27th of January, 1871. The State District Court, in December, 1878, sustained the petition of Hood, so far as to reduce the amount due by him on May 1, 1871, to $6564.06, with interest at 8 per cent per annum from that date, less a credit thereon of $1200, to take effect from January 1, 1872. On an appeal taken by Frellsen to the Supreme Court of Louisiana, that court, in May, 1879, reversed the judgment of the lower court, and gave judgment in favor of Frellsen, rejecting the demand of Hood and dissolving the injunction. Hood v. Frellsen, 31 La. Ann. 577. Norton, the assignee in bankruptcy of Hood, then filed the bill in equity in this suit, in the District Court of the United States, for the District of Louisiana, against Hood and Frellsen and one Asberry, sheriff of the parish of East Carroll. The bill set forth that Hood was insolvent during the whole of the years 1866, 1867, and 1868; that Frellsen advised Hood to go into bankruptcy and relieve himself of his debts; that the confession of judgment by Hood, the issuing of executions upon it, the sales at auction of the four parcels of land to Frellsen, and the conveyance of May 1, 1871, by Frellsen to Hood, were fraudulent simulations, for the purpose of enabling Hood to put his property beyond the reach of his creditors and of enabling Frellsen, by means of an unlawful preference, to obtain payment of his claim in full; that, to that end, it was agreed that Frellsen should nominally execute the confessed judgment, and |