Federal Land Bank v. Wood

129 F.2d 89, 1942 U.S. App. LEXIS 3298
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedJuly 10, 1942
DocketNo. 12235
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 129 F.2d 89 (Federal Land Bank v. Wood) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Federal Land Bank v. Wood, 129 F.2d 89, 1942 U.S. App. LEXIS 3298 (8th Cir. 1942).

Opinion

GARDNER, Circuit Judge.

The substantial question presented by this record is whether the appellee, who filed a petition under Section 75 of the Bankruptcy Act, 11 U.S.C.A. § 203, for the composition or extension of her debts, is or was a farmer within the purview of that Act. Appellee, in her petition, schedules large farm land holdings as owned by her, consisting of 1,760 acres of land in Holt County, Nebraska, 475 acres of land in Greene and Carroll Counties, Iowa, 58 acres of land in Harrison County, Iowa, besides certain residence property in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She acquired title to the lands in Nebraska and Iowa subject to mortgages held by appellants. She listed personal property consisting of household goods valued at $300, but listed no farm machinery, implements, tools, livestock, or farm products. The proceeding was referred to the Conciliation Commissioner in Holt County, Nebraska, who after hearing testimony submitted on behalf of petitioner recommended that the proceeding be dismissed on the ground that appellee was not a farmer within the meaning of the Bankruptcy Act. Appellants having each filed a motion to dismiss the proceeding, the District Court referred the matter to Herman Aye, Supervising Conciliation Commissioner, for the purpose of hearing evidence and determining the facts and law regarding the status of the debtor. The debtor appeared personally and by counsel before the Commissioner, was a witness in her own behalf, and the testimony theretofore taken at the first meeting of creditors was resubmitted. Appellants appeared at this hearing and again entered motions for dismissal.

The Commissioner filed his report in which he found that the debtor was not a farmer within the purview of Section 75, sub. r of the Bankruptcy Act, and recommended that the proceeding be dismissed on that ground. Exceptions and objections to this report were filed by the debtor and the matter was submitted to the court. Thereafter the court filed its decision overruling [90]*90the findings and conclusions of the Commissioner, and finding the debtor to be a farmer, entered an order denying appellants’ motions to dismiss the proceeding. From this order and judgment appellants prosecute this appeal.

The debtor acquired title to the lands in question from her sister, Mrs. Norton, between the years 1932 and 1935. The land in Greene and Carroll Counties, Iowa, was encumbered by a mortgage to appellant Lincoln Joint Stock Land Bank for approximately $50,000, which was under foreclosure, and possession of the land was in a receiver appointed by the State Court. The 58-acre tract of land in Harrison County, Iowa, was also encumbered. The lands in Holt County, Nebraska, at the time the debtor acquired title were encumbered by a mortgage to appellant Federal Land Bank of Omaha and proceedings in foreclosure of that mortgage had already been commenced.

Section 75, sub. r of the Bankruptcy Act defines a farmer for the purpose of the proceeding here under consideration, as follows :

“For the purposes of this section ánd section 22 (b) the term ‘farmer’ includes not only an individual who is primarily bona fide personally engaged in producing products of the soil, but also any individual who is primarily bona fide personally engaged in dairy farming, the production of poultry or livestock, or the production of poultry products or livestock products in their unmanufactured state, or the principal part of whose income is derived from any one or more of the foregoing operations, and includes the personal representative of a deceased farmer; and a farmer shall be deemed a resident of any county in which such operations occur.”

It is contended by counsel for appellee that within this definition the debtor is a farmer, and it is said that a farmer includes “(1) persons primarily and bona fide engaged in producing products of the soil; (2) engaged in dairy farming, poultry or livestock; (3) engaged in producing in unmanufactured state the raw products derived from the above; (4) one, the principal part of whose income is derived from one or more of the foregoing operations.” This attempt to fix, catalogue or classify in the abstract the persons who shall be adjudged farmers is not warranted. Each case must be determined upon its own individual facts and circumstances.

In the final analysis, under the admitted facts we need only consider whether the debtor was a farmer because personally bona fide engaged primarily in farming operations, or because the principal part of her income was derived from farming operations. In addition to the facts already recited, it is important to note that for many years the debtor was a resident of Chattanooga, Tennessee. She either went there as the wife of Dr. Wood, or became his wife after going to Chattanooga. It does not appear how long she remained the wife of Dr. Wood, but during her married life she lived in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Her husband departed this life, apparently leaving her some estate. Following his death she began to teach school at Chattanooga and has continued teaching there up to the present time. Her income from teaching of late years has been $1,250 a year. She makes no claim to having farmed any of the Iowa land, even by hired help. She owns no livestock, no farm implements, nor tools. She has rented some portion of the Nebraska land to a tenant who furnishes his own equipment and farms only a very small acreage on the shares and makes hay on certain of the land also on the shares. Certain rentals received from the Iowa lands went to the receiver, but there is no evidence that the rents collected by the receiver afford income to her, or that they will ever accrue to her rather than to the mortgagee. The most she ever received from the Nebraska land is estimated by her at from $150 to $200. She claims to be a resident of Holt County, Nebraska, where she has part of her furniture in a house on this land, but she continues to live in Chattanooga, where she has continuously taught school for upwards of twenty years, and teaching is confessedly her primary occupation. Possession of the Holt County, Nebraska, land has been retained by the debtor under the state moratorium for a period of time. Manifestly, if the debtor is a farmer, she became such after she acquired the legal title to the lands in question.

The appellee relies upon the decision of the Supreme Court in First National Bank & Trust Co. v. Beach, 301 U.S. 435, 57 S.Ct. 801, 803, 81 L.Ed. 1206. In that case it appeared that Beach was the owner of a farm with five houses and a barn on it, where he had been living from his birth, occupying one of the houses with his wife and children. The farm in fact had been in the ownership of his family for two genera[91]*91tions. For a time he had been engaged in the mercantile business, but owing to financial losses he began working on the farm again and gave most of his time to it after 1930. The land had an apple orchard of 200 trees, which gave him 1,500 bushels of apples in 1931. He sold fruit from this orchard, cultivated a large garden, planted and raised all kinds of vegetables, fruits, and flowers. He made hay on the land and sold it, repaired the houses, laid several miles of stone wall, built two miles of barbed wire fence, and raised and sold poultry. He was occupied primarily in raising poultry. He kept sheep and a horse for carting and hauling farm tools. His total annual income from 1933 to 1935 was $4,000 of which $2,200 was derived from renting three-quarters of the land to various persons for grazing and cultivation.

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Related

In Re Maike
77 B.R. 832 (D. Kansas, 1987)
Jordan v. Federal Land Bank
139 F.2d 203 (Eighth Circuit, 1943)
In re Young
52 F. Supp. 785 (D. Nebraska, 1943)
Skinner v. Dingwell
134 F.2d 391 (Eighth Circuit, 1943)
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131 F.2d 9 (Eighth Circuit, 1942)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
129 F.2d 89, 1942 U.S. App. LEXIS 3298, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/federal-land-bank-v-wood-ca8-1942.