Court Opinion

ID: 9808423
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 20:37:50.139545+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:12:14.863543
License: Public Domain

Clark, J.,
dissenting: I concur with the view that it is sufficient that the return of the allotment of the homestead is filed in the judgment roll. The homestead being by the terms of the Constitution, “exempt from sale under execution” against the “owner and occupier” thereof, the homestead right is merely a cessed exenttio and hence the proper place to file the allotment is in the judgment roll. It is true that The Code, Section 504, further requires the allotment to be registered but, as the Court in this case holds, this latter is merely directory. It would, on the contrary, be mandatory if the homestead was an estate. Acts 1885, Chapter 147. It was held an estate in Adrian v. Shaw, 82 N. C., 474, which was sustained by a bare majority in Stern v. Lee, 115 N. C., 426, but that it is a mere determinable exemption has been held by a unanimous (hurt in Fleming v. Graham, 110 N. C., 374, and incidentally in Allen v. Bolen, 114 N. C., 560. It is also recognized as “a mere stay of execution, nothing more,” by Shepherd, J., in Jones v. Britton, 102 N. C., on page 102; by Bynum, J., in Bank v. Green, 78 N. C., 247, and in other cases cited in Thomas v. Fulford, 117 N. C., at *236page 679. In the latter case, which is the last declaration of the Court on this important subject, the majority of the Judges, “three out of five,” held that “the homestead is not an estate but a determinable exemption.” 117 N. C., Montgomery, J., at page 682; Avery, J., at page 686, and Clark, J., at page 678. Adhering to this last exposition of the Court upon this much debated subject, it is clear that, upon the homesteader ceasing to “own and occupy” the allotted land, the exemption as to it ceased and determined just as if he had removed out of the State. Fulton v. Roberts, 113 N. C., 421. It would seem, therefore, under the ruling of the majority in the last case on the subject, that “the determinable exemption” having ceased by the conveyance of the realty by the homesteader, in the mode required by the Constitution, Article X, Section 8, “by deed with privy examination of the wife,” all right to exemption ceased with that deed, and the judgment creditor had the right to enforce his lien. Without further citation, reference is made to Thomas v. Fulford, 117 N. C., at page 678; Stern v. Lee, 115 N. C., at pages 433-447, and Vanstory v. Thornton, 112 N. C., at pages 211-223. The two last citations are to dissenting opinions, it is true, but they follow the unanimous decision in Fleming v. Graham, 110 N. C., 374, and are supported by the reasoning of a majority of the Court in its last enunciation in Thomas v. Fulford, supra.
The exemption from execution having ceased upon the conveyance- of the allotted homestead by the husband and wife with her privy examination, the judgment creditor should have taken steps to enforce his lien. Not having done so, his lien expired in ten years thereafter -and the purchaser holds the realty freed from the judgment lien. I think the judgment should be affirmed but not for the reasons given by the Court below.