by John Marshall, Bayley v. Greenleaf — Opinion of the Court
“ In the United States the claims of creditors stand on high ground. There is not perhaps a State in the Union, the laws of which do not make all conveyances not recorded, and all secret trusts, void as to creditors as well as subsequent purchasers without notice. To support the secret lien of the vendor against a creditor who is a mortgagee, would be to counteract the spirit of these laws. ”
by John Marshall, Bayley v. Greenleaf — Opinion of the Court
“ The weight of authority is, we think, the other way. The lien of the vendor, if in the nature of a trust, is a secret trust; and, although to be preferred to any other subsequent equal equity, unconnected with a legal advantage, or equitable advantage which gives a superior claim to the legal estate, will be postponed to a subsequent equal equity connected with such advantage. ”
by John Marshall, Bayley v. Greenleaf — Opinion of the Court
“ That a vendor, who has taken no other security for the purchase money, retains a lien for it on the land as against the vendee, or his heirs, seems to be well settled by the English decisions. It is equally well settled, that this lien is defeated by an alienation to a purchaser without notice. How far it may be asserted against creditors, seems not so well settled, and constitutes the subject of inquiry in this case. ”
