Hodges v. Cooksey

33 Fla. 715
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedJanuary 15, 1894
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 33 Fla. 715 (Hodges v. Cooksey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hodges v. Cooksey, 33 Fla. 715 (Fla. 1894).

Opinion

Mabry, J.:

Appellee filed a bill in chancery against appellant and the sheriff of Bradford county to enjoin the sale of personal property levied on by virtue of a distress warrant to collect rent alleged to be due appellant. The injunction prayed for in the bill was granted, to continue in force until the further order of the court, and after answer filed a motion was made to dissolve the injunction on bill and answer. The motion to dissolve the injunction was overruled, and from this ruling the respondent, Mary E. Hodges, appealed.

' The bill contains many allegations of matters of which a court of chancery has no jurisdiction, and we do not deem it necessary to set them out in this opinion. As no objection was made to the sufficiency of the pleadings, we will consider no allegations therein except those relating to appellee’s right of exemption in and to the property seized under the distress proceedings. The theory of the bill is that the complainant, appellee here, is entitled to the constitutional exemption of one thousand dollar’s worth of personal property out of the property seized under the- distress warrant. Chapter 3246, laws of 1881, confers upon the Circuit Courts “equity jurisdiction to enjoin the sale of all property, real and personal, that is exempt from forced sale under the Constitution and laws of the State of [717]*717Florida,” and such, matters in the case before us as relate to the claim and right of appellee to hold as exempt from such forced sale the property, or any part, of it, levied on by the sheriff, come properly within the jurisdiction of the court of chancery.

The relation between appellant and appellee, as, shown by the written contract between them, a copy-of which is attached to the bill and not questioned by-the answer, was, we think, that of landlord and ten-, ant. The lease of the premises therein described was. for live years, beginning on the first day of January, 1885, at a yearly rental of six hundred dollars, evidenced by five promissory notes, due respectively January first, 1886, January first. 1887, January first, 1888, January first, 1889, and January first, 1890, and the claim for rent alleged to be due under this lease on the 10th day of October, 1889, when the distress, warrant was issued, was $1,446.22. • The property levied on under the warrant consisted of horses, mules, cattle, hogs, wagons, cart, buggy and harness, farming, implements, corn, fodder and cotton, gathered and ungathered, a steam saw-mill and machinery attached, a grist-mill, cotton gins and a cotton press, a lot of sawed lumber and a stock of merchandise consisting of dry goods, groceries and medicines. All of the property levied upon was found on the leased premises except about thirty-three head of cattle, one wagon and one cart, and this part- of the property was found on another place. Appellee was the head of a family residing in this State, and claims that he is entitled to hold one thousand dollars’ worth of the property levied on exempt from sale under the distress proceedings, and this is the only question we need consider in determining the correctness of the court’s ruling in refusing to dissolve the injunction.

[718]*718Claims for rent under Section one, Chapter 3131, acts ■of 1879, are declared to be a lien an all agricultural products raised on the land rented superior to all other liens and claims though of older date, 'and also a lien •on all other property of the lessee or his sub-lessee or assigns usually kept on the premises superior to any lien acquired subsequent to such property having been ¡brought on the premises leased. The distress warrant .may be levied on any property of the tenant liable for the rent whether it be found on or off the leased premises, and in whosesoever possession found, but the lien of the warrant on property not mentioned in the first section of said act dates from the day upon which the levy is made. Chapter 3247, acts of 1881, gave the landlord a lien on the crops grown on the rented land dor rent for the current year, and also for advances made for the sustenance or well-being of the tenant or his family, for preparing the ground for cultivation, or for cultivating, gathering, saving, handling or preparing the crop for market. This act gave a further lien on articles advanced and on property purchased with money advanced, which need not be considered in this case. We regard it as settled in this State that the ■constitutional exemption of personal property can not be claimed as against the lien for rent on the agricultural products raised on the land rented. Cathcart vs. Turner, 18 Fla., 837; Blanchard & Burrus vs. Raines, 20 Fla., 467. There are many decisions sustaining the . view taken by this court in the cases mentioned. The land rented is regarded as such a factor in the production of the crops as to subordinate the title of the tenant thereto to the superior or paramount lien for the use and occupation of the land. - As expressed in Cathcart vs. Turner: “As to such products there can be no claim of exemption, because the very title of the [719]*719tenant to such products is subordinate to the lien.” Slaughter vs. Winfrey, 85 N. C., 159. The lien given by the act of 1879, supra, is on the agricultural products raised on the land rented, and no reference is made to the .crop of any year during the lease being bound only for the rent of that year. By this act the lien for rent is a charge as between landlord and tenant upon any of the agricultural products raised on the rented premises during the pend-ency of the lease. Whether the lien for rent on the other property of the tenant usually kept on the premises, and found either on or off the same, is superior to the claim of exemption from forced sale under the Constitution, presents another question. In the absence of any right to the exemption provided for in the Constitution, it is entirely clear that the act of 1879 gives a lien on all the property other than agricultural products of the lessee or his sub-lessee or assigns usually kept on the premises superior to liens acquired subsequent to the carrying of such property on the premises leased. Jones vs. Fox, 23 Fla., 454, 2 South. Rep., 700; Fox vs. Jones, 26 Fla., 276, 8 South. Rep., 449.

* It is contended by counsel for appellee that the right to claim the constitutional exemption as against a demand for rent has been decided by this court in the case of Cathcart vs. Turner. A careful examination of that case will -show that it can not be regarded as a •direct adjudication of the point. It is true that in that ■case the distress warrant was levied upon agricultural products, and also on some “household goods,” and as to the household goods the opinion says that the claimant, “if he is entitled to claim the benefit of any exemption of property 'from forced sale on any process of law1 he can lawfully claim them as exempt from [720]*720distraint for rent or any other process of law under the terms of Section 1, Article IX of the Constitution, to-the value, if not more, than one thousand dollars.” The statement of the case shows that Cathcart, the landlord, had a special contract for rent by which all the crops grown on the place were to be appropriated to the payment of the rent and for supplies furnished, and that none of the crops were to be sold by the tenant until the rents and supplies were paid for. This contract is referred to in one place in the opinion as being a paper mortgaging the crops to pay the rent.

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Bluebook (online)
33 Fla. 715, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hodges-v-cooksey-fla-1894.