In Re Rashid

97 B.R. 610, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7884, 1989 WL 15780
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 12, 1989
DocketCIV-88-452-P, Bankruptcy No. BK-87-753-A
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 97 B.R. 610 (In Re Rashid) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Rashid, 97 B.R. 610, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7884, 1989 WL 15780 (W.D. Okla. 1989).

Opinion

ORDER

PHILLIPS, District Judge.

Before the Court is the appeal by City National Bank of Sayre (“Bank”) of the Bankruptcy Court’s February 24, 1988 Order. Appellant Bank filed its brief on April 14, 1988. Gladys Rashid (“debtor”) filed her brief on May 16, 1988 to which the Bank replied on May 31, 1988. The broad issue on appeal is whether rental of a house separate from, but adjacent to, the principal residence, constitutes a business purpose so as to limit the Oklahoma homestead exemption to $5,000 pursuant to 31 Okla.Stat. §§ 1 & 2.

I.STANDARD OF REVIEW

In reviewing a bankruptcy court’s decision, the district court functions as an appellate court and is authorized to affirm, reverse or modify the bankruptcy court’s ruling or to remand the case for further proceedings. Fed.R.Bankr.P. 8013. The Court is bound to accept the bankruptcy court’s findings of fact unless they are clearly erroneous, but may examine its conclusions of law de novo. In re Mullet, 817 F.2d 677, 678-79 (10th Cir.1987); In re Branding Iron Motel, Inc., 798 F.2d 396, 399-400 (10th Cir.1986); A factual finding is clearly erroneous “when although there is evidence to support it, the reviewing court on the entire evidence is left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.” Anderson v. City of Bessemer City, 470 U.S. 564, 573, 105 S.Ct. 1504, 1511, 84 L.Ed.2d 518 (1985) (quoting United States v. United States Gypsum Co., 333 U.S. 364, 395, 68 S.Ct. 525, 542, 92 L.Ed. 746 (1948)). In reviewing the factual findings, an appellate court may not weigh the evidence or reverse a finding because it would have decided the case differently. Id. A bankruptcy court’s factual determination will not be disturbed on appeal absent “the most cogent reasons appearing in the record.” Kansas Fed. Credit Union v. Niemeier, 227 F.2d 287, 291 (10th Cir. 1955). “The appellate court is not called upon to determine whether the trial court reached the correct conclusion of law, but rather whether it reached a permissible conclusion in light of the evidence.” Dowell v. United States, 553 F.2d 1233, 1235 (10th Cir.1977).

II.FACTS

Debtor filed her voluntary petition in bankruptcy under Chapter 7 on February 3, 1987. Debtor’s husband did not file for bankruptcy protection, nor is he a debtor of Bank. In her bankruptcy petition, debtor claimed a homestead exemption for real property described as Lots 1 and 2, Block 52, Original Town of Sayre, Beckham County, Oklahoma. According to debtor’s schedules the claimed homestead had a fair market value of $50,000, but a more realistic estimate is probably less.

Bank is a judgment creditor of the debt- or, holding a judgment against debtor from the District Court of Canadian County in the amount of $51,718.46, plus post-judgment interest. Bank filed its claim in the bankruptcy proceedings for this amount, and no objection was filed by debtor.

Debtor owns an undivided one-half (V2) interest in Lots 1 and 2, described above, as a joint tenant with her husband. The property which she claims as her homestead consists of two lots. On one lot is a house used as her personal residence. On an adjacent lot is a building used many years ago as a store; and a duplex. The two lots undisputedly comprise less than one-fourth (V4) acre. Both sides of the duplex are rented for a total income of $175 per month, and debtor’s one-half (V2) interest is $87.50 per month.

III.FINDINGS & CONCLUSIONS OF THE BANKRUPTCY COURT

On February 10, 1988 trial was held on Bank’s objection to debtor’s claim of exempt property. The Bankruptcy Court found that the incidental use, for rental *612 purposes, of the duplex portion of the debt- or’s property did not constitute the use of the homestead for both residence and business purposes under 31 Okla.Stat. § 2 (1981), and denied Bank’s objection to the claim of exempt property. The Bankruptcy Court stated:

[T]he following will be the findings and conclusions under Rule 7052 — we’ve got a quarter acre in town on which there’s a dwelling which is occupied by the debtor and her husband. And there’s another little building which at one time was used as a store, but that use ceased in 1985, and it hasn’t been used at all.
And, then, we have this other house, which is a duplex, and on the date the petition was filed, was rented out. So we look at the facts in existence on the date that the bankruptcy was filed. I suppose if somebody wanted to avoid the implications of this statute, it would be easy to run the tenants out, and go file your bankruptcy petition, and then let them come back in. But that didn’t happen. So then we confront this statute, which really is not being construed except for this 1937 case. And I never see it come up. It’s kind of perplexing. It came up in one case and then the parties —in that case, the debtor was a professional, was an accountant or a lawyer, and used part of the house for an office to carry on the profession. But that got settled, so I never had to hear that. But this is another unfortunate example of these old, antiquated exemption laws that we have in Oklahoma. We’re dealing with a statute written in 1910 or sometime shortly thereafter with the realities of 1988. And the legislature, unfortunately, piecemeal picks away at these exemption provisions ... So that statute says:
“Provided further in the case the homestead is used for both residence and business purposes, the homestead interest shall not exceed the value of the sum of five thousand dollars.”
In here, it’s also unquestioned that the property, the entire quarter acre is worth ... more than $5,000. Now, in this old decision, Judge Kennamer goes back and reviews some of the history of the provision, and discusses what is and what’s not business. And, of course, this case is from the Northern District and not the Western District. He adopts a very broad definition of business, saying it embraces everything about which a person can be employed; and, therefore, holds that the renting of the duplex is within the Constitutional provision. I’m not so sure that that’s the proper construction. I think what the legislature was doing was seeking to get at those situations where someone is actually conducting some kind of a business on the homestead. As an example here, if the store had been in operation at that time, where you’ve got customers coming and going, you’ve got traffic, you’ve got everything that that entails, I think that’s what we’re talking about, not just the mere renting out of a duplex to a couple of tenants.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
97 B.R. 610, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7884, 1989 WL 15780, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-rashid-okwd-1989.