Court Opinion

ID: 9637896
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 15:25:40.519644+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:02:20.993740
License: Public Domain

KENYON, Circuit Judge
(dissenting). The concrete question here is whether growing crops on a homestead exempt under the laws of Minnesota are also exempt. I agree that there is no decision of the highest court of Minnesota settling this question, and it is therefore our duty to give a construction to the Minnesota statute. I also agree that a somewhat similar question was decided by this court in In re Sullivan, 148 F. 815, 78 C. C. A. 505, and followed by the District Court of the United States for Minnesota in In re Friedrich, 199 F. 193. The Sullivan decision was based on the Iowa exemption law, and it seems to me is, contrary to the holding of the Supreme Court of Iowa in Morgan et al. v. Rountree, 55 N. W. 65, 88 Iowa, 249, 45 Am. St. Rep. 234. The latter ease dealt with money due from a homestead, and it was held to be exempt from execution. If money due for rent of a homestead is exempt, certainly a part of the crop to be given for rent would be likewise exempt, and a large percentage of the land in the middle West a.t least is so rented. In this ease the Supreme Court of Iowa, speaking of the statute exempting homesteads, said:
“It is certainly the spirit and purpose to exempt, not only the homestead, but also the use thereof, for without the use the exemption would be valueless. It is not simply as a place of shelter, a place in which to live, that homesteads are exempt, but also as a means of making a living, as is shown by the exemption of one-half an acre in town, 40 acres in the country, and the shop or building, when situated on the exempt premises, in which the head of the family carries on his business. The use of the homestead, as well as the homestead itself, is unquestionably exempt so long as the homestead character is maintained. * * * We think it is in harmony with the evident spirit and purpose of our statute to hold that the head of a family owning a' homestead has a right to hold as exempt, not only the homestead and its use, but also crops or money which he may derive from its use while the property continues to be his homestead.”
The Circuit Court of Appeals of the Ninth Circuit in Olmsted-Stevenson Co. v. Miller, 231 F. 69, 145 C. C. A. 257, has taken an exactly opposite position to that of this court in the Sullivan Case, and I think the great weight of authority, as well as sound reasoning, supports the position taken by the Ninth Circuit. It is true, of course, as stated in the opinion here, that decisions laying down rules which govern property rights should not be overruled and changed unless there are convincing reasons that they are unsound. With great respect for the learning and ability of the judges who decided In re Sullivan, I cannot bring my mind to any other conclusion than that the decision was unsound, contrary to the great weight of authority in the United States, and destructive of the universally accepted doctrine that exemption statutes should be liberally construed. Therefore it seems to me this court should overrule tlje doctrine of the Sullivan Case. There is a great public policy involved in exemption statutes. The homestead exemption does not accomplish its purpose if the owner cannot have the full use of the property. What would be the result if the-debtor planted no crops? Would the creditor have the right t.o go in, take the land and plant crops? Clearly not. Can the garden on th’e homestead be taken by the creditors? Would it be contended that the usual exemption under nearly all state laws of a certain number of cows or chickens means that the creditors were entitled to the milk from the cows or to the eggs from the chickens? Is it the theory of exemption laws that the exemption is one of benefit only to the debtor in that he may sell the exempt property? Of what value is anything if the owner cannot use it ?
As said in Olmsted-Stevenson Co. v. Miller, 231 F. 69, 72, 145 C. C. A. 257, 260: “To set aside a homestead to an unfortunate debtor in the spring, and permit a trustee in bankruptcy to invade it in the fall and carry 'away the crops, is to keep the word of promise to the ear and break it to the hope.” A very clear statement of exemption of agricultural land is stated in Moore v. *751Graham, 69 S. W. 200, 29 Tex. Civ. App. 235. It so admirably expresses the true philosophy of exemption laws that I quote therefrom this excerpt: “The occupation by the head of the family of a homestead for agriculture is for the purpose of realizing therefrom something to support himself and family, rather than to employ it as a mere place wherein to shelter him and them from the winter’s cold or summer’s heat. If the exemption extended to him does not. include an ungathered crop, whether matured or not, it is of no benefit to the owner. In such an event he and his wife and children would only have the privilege of standing in the house or yard, and seeing an officer invade their field, and take possession of, by virtue of an attachment or execution, the crops growing or standing thereon, and appropriate the fruits of their toil, without any benefit from what the law was intended to secure them.”
I respectfully dissent from the opinion in this ease.