In re Erickson

76 B.R. 136, 1987 Bankr. LEXIS 1189
District Court, N.D. Iowa·Decided July 27, 1987·No. Bankruptcy No. 86-1823-C·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

LEE M. JACKWIG, Bankruptcy Judge.

ORDER ON OBJECTION TO DEBTOR’S LIST OF EXEMPT PROPERTY

On January 21,1987 an objection to debt- or’s list of exempt property filed by the Brenton State Bank of Jefferson (Bank) filed on November 7, 1986 came on for hearing in Des Moines, Iowa. Rita Har-mening Pedersen appeared on behalf of the Bank and Thomas Hanson appeared on behalf of the debtor.

The debtor filed an individual petition for relief on June 6, 1986. The debtor is a farmer. Pursuant to Iowa Code section 627.6(ll)(a),1 he claims a semi-tractor as exempt. The Bank argues that the semi-tractor is not an implement or equipment reasonably related to a normal farming operation as required by section 627.6(ll)(a). The court disagrees.

DISCUSSION

I.

Iowa Code section 627.6(ll)(a) provides that a farm debtor may hold exempt from execution “[¡Implements and equipment reasonably related to a normal farming operation.2 The provision goes on to provide that “[t]his exemption is in addition to a motor vehicle held exempt under subsection 9.”3 Id. Iowa’s exemption statute is based upon the premise “that it is better that the ordinary creditor’s claims should remain partially unsatisfied than that a resident of the state should be placed in such an impecunious position that he and his family become charges of the state.” Note, Personal Property Exemptions in Iowa: An Analysis and Some Suggestions, 36 Iowa L.Rev. 76, 77 (1950). The Iowa Supreme Court has stated that the purpose of the exemption statute “is to secure to the unfortunate debtor the means to support himself and the family; the protection of the family being the main consideration.” Shepard v. Findley, 204 Iowa 107, 214 N.W. 676, 678 (1927).

In construing section 627.6(1l)(a), the court is mindful of the well-settled proposition that Iowa’s exemption statute must be liberally construed. Frudden Lumber Co. v. Clifton, 183 N.W.2d 201, 203 (Iowa 1971). Yet, this court must be careful not to depart substantially from the express language of the exemption statute or to extend the legislative grant. Matter of Hahn, 5 B.R. 242, 244 (Bankr.S.D.Iowa 1980), citing Wertz v. Hale, 212 Iowa 294, 234 N.W. 534 (1931) and Iowa Methodist Hospital v. Long, 234 Iowa 843, 12 N.W.2d 171 (1944).

Prior to 1981, Iowa’s exemption law provided separate categories for tools of the [138] trade and vehicles. Section 627.6 as it existed prior to 1981 provided in part that debtors were able to claim as exempt:

(17) The proper tools, instruments, or books of the debtor, if a farmer, mechanic, surveyor, professional engineer, architect, clergyman, lawyer, physician, dentist, teacher, or professor.
(18) If the debtor is a physician, public officer, farmer, teamster, or other laborer, a team, consisting of not more than two horses or mules, or two yoke of cattle, and the wagon or other vehicle, with the proper harness or tackle, by the use of which he habitually earns his living, otherwise one horse.

In Farmers’ Elevator and Live Stock Co. v. Satre, 196 Iowa 1076, 195 N.W. 1011 (1923), the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that a farmer could not claim a truck as a tool of trade under the then existing Iowa exemption law, quoted above. Although the court acknowledged that in a broad sense a truck was a farm implement, it found that a truck was a vehicle. The court stated:

Were it not for the specific classification in the statute of the ‘proper tools, instruments, or books of the debtor, if a farmer,’ and a further classification of ‘the wagon or other vehicles, etc.,’ the position of the [debtor] would be very convincing. But the statute mentions and classifies separately ‘the proper tools, instruments,’ used in the operation of the farm business and ‘the wagon or other vehicle.’ Undoubtedly the truck and automobile in question come within the latter classification and must therefore be considered strictly as vehicles, and not as farm tools.... The statute in plain and clear terms enumerates what is exempt to a farmer in the way of a vehicle, and the automobile and truck in question come under the classification made respecting a vehicle. We are not warranted in saying that the truck and automobile in question, or either of them, should come under the classification of tools and instruments of a farmer, when there is in the statute a specific classification under which they belong.

Farmers’ Elevator, 195 N.W. at 1013. Relying on Farmers’ Elevator, former Bankruptcy Judge Richard Stageman ruled that a farmer debtor could not claim a tractor-wagon combination or a truck-trailer combination as a tool of the trade. Matter of Hahn, 5 B.R. 242 (Bankr.S.D.Iowa 1980). At the time the Hahn decision was rendered, Iowa’s exemption statute was essentially the same as it was when Farmers’ Elevator was decided.

The statutory impediments that prevented the Iowa Supreme Court from permitting a debtor to claim a truck as a farmer’s “tool of the trade” are no longer present under Iowa’s current exemption scheme. In Farmers’ Elevator the existence of a separate exemption category for vehicles precluded the debtor from claiming a truck as a tool of the trade. Under current law, a separate exemption category for vehicles exists under Iowa Code section 627.6(9)(b), apart from the farmer’s implements and equipment exemption under section 627.-6(ll)(a). Therefore at first blush, one might conclude a truck cannot be deemed a tool of the trade but rather must be relegated to the vehicle exemption under section 627.6(9)(b). However, the second sentence of section 627.6(ll)(a) forestalls this conclusion. The second sentence reads: “[t]his exemption is in addition to a motor vehicle held exempt under subsection 9.” Id. (emphasis added). Use of the words “in addition” and reference to the vehicle exemption under subsection 9 evinces a legislative perception that motor vehicles are to be included within the meaning of “implements and equipment” under section 627.-6(ll)(a).

This conclusion is bolstered by the rule of statutory construction concerning amended legislation which provides as follows:

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In re Erickson, 76 B.R. 136, 1987 Bankr. LEXIS 1189 (N.D. Iowa 1987).

76 B.R. 136 (In re Erickson) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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