Stellionate

STELLIONATE, civil law. A name given generally, to all species of frauds committed in making contracts.
     2. This word is said to be derived from the Latin stellio, a kind of lizard remarkable for its cunning and the change of its color, because those guilty of frauds used every art and cunning to conceal them. But more particularly it was the crime of a person who fraudulently assigned, sold, or engaged the thing which he had before assigned sold, or engaged to another, unknown to the person with whom be was dealing. Dig. 47, 20, 3; Code, 9, 34, 1; Merl. Repert. h.t.; Code Civil, art. 2069; 1 Bro. Civ. Law, 426.
     3. In South Carolina and Georgia, a mortgagor who makes a second mortgage without disclosing in writing, to the second mortgagee, the existence of the first mortgage, is not allowed to redeem and, in the foreign state, when a person suffers a judgment, or enters into a statute or recognizance binding his land, afterwards mortgages it, without giving notice, in writing, of the prior incumbrance, he shall not be allowed to redeem, unless, within six months from a written demand, he discharges such incumbrance. Prin. Dig. 161; 1 Brev. Dig. 166-8.
     4. In Ohio a fraudulent conveyance is punished as a crime; Walk. Intr. 350; and, in Indians, any party to a fraudulent conveyance is subjected to a flue and to double damages. Ind. Rev. Laws, 189. See 12 Pet. 773.