Definition of Absconding Debtor

One who absconds from his creditors. 'An absconding debtor is one who lives without the state or who has intentionally concealed himself from his creditors or withdrawn himself from the reach of their suits, with intent to frustrate their just demands. Thus, if a person departs from his usual residence or remains absent therefrom or conceals himself in his house, so that he cannot be served with process, with intent unlawfully to delay or defraud his creditors, he is an absconding debtor; but if he departs from the state or from his usual abode, with the intention of again returning, and without any fraudulent design, he has not absconded, nor absented himself, within the intendment of the law. Stafford v. Mills, 57 N. J. Law, 574, 32 Atl. 7; Fitch v. Waite, 5 Co.nn. 117. A party may abscond, and subject himself to the operation of the attachment law against absconding debtors, without leaving the limits of the state. Field v. Adreon, 7 Md. 209. A debtor who is shut up from his creditors in his own house is an absconding debtor. Ives v. Curtiss, 2 Root (Conn.) 133.