Macke v. Byrd

33 S.W. 448, 131 Mo. 682, 1895 Mo. LEXIS 115
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedDecember 23, 1895
StatusPublished
Cited by39 cases

This text of 33 S.W. 448 (Macke v. Byrd) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Macke v. Byrd, 33 S.W. 448, 131 Mo. 682, 1895 Mo. LEXIS 115 (Mo. 1895).

Opinion

Barclay, J.

This is a suit to charge certain real property, in Cape Girardeau county, with the lien of a judgment, and to have part of the land, in excess of the homestead value, set apart and subjected to sale to satisfy the lien, although the land is owned by other parties than the judgment debtor.

On the other side, it is claimed that the property [686]*686is free from the judgment lien, by virtue of the homestead law.

The facts that control the result were admitted by the pleadings or at the trial.

Mr. Ranney was in possession in May, 1876, when the tract in question (consisting of nearly 105 acres) was set apart to him as a homestead, by appraisers appointed by the sheriff, under two executions in favor oh Mr. Houck, as administrator, plaintiff, against Ranney and another. The sheriff’s report of sale in that matter (including a report of the appraisers, who set apart the homestead) was confirmed by the court from which the executions issued.

Ranney had occupied the place as a homestead for himself and family for many years prior to any of the dates in this record; and continued in such occupancy until the conveyance to Mrs. Byrd.

After the homestead had been so set apart, the present plaintiff, Mr. Macke, obtained in 1883 a judgment against Ranney and another for $739.80, on a note executed by them in March, 1876.

In July, 1885, Ranney and Mr. A. R. Byrd made a contract by which the former agreed to sell the piece of land (which we shall call the homestead) for the price of $2,600. Before the sale was consummated, Macke sued out an execution on his judgment, and garnished Mr. Byrd. Thereupon Ranney refused to make a deed. Upon a trial of the garnishment case, there was a finding for defendants, and Mr. Byrd was discharged as garnishee.

But after the garnishment was served, Mrs. Byrd, wife of this Mr. Byrd, purchased the property for the same price agreed upon in the former contract of sale. The homestead was conveyed to her through an intermediary, August 6, 1885. The consideration was [687]*687drawn from the proceeds of sale of some other land belonging to the wife.

After this purchase, Mr. and Mrs. Byrd entered into possession, and Ranney moved out of the state.

In 1886, plaintiff sued out a writ of scire facias to revive his judgment, making Mr. and Mrs. Byrd parties, as well as the original defendants. The court ultimately discharged the former as unnecessary parties, but entered judgment of revivor against Ranney upon a service by publication as to him.

Then followed the present suit, in 1888, by the judgment creditor, Macke, against Mr. and Mrs. Byrd to cause the homestead to be reassigned, and that part of it in excess of $1,500 in value to be subjected to the plaintiff’s demand as embodied in the judgment.

The trial court found for plaintiff, and appointed commissioners to set off the homestead, which they afterwards did, by a particular description; and the court adjudged the rest (a considerable part) of the original homestead tract to be subject to plaintiff’s judgment, notwithstanding the original debtor Ranney had meantime parted with his title as above described.

The defendants took the pending writ of error after the customary motions and exceptions to preserve for review the questions submitted here.

1. The Ranney homestead was set apart to him in 1876, as exempt from the executions then outstanding against him. The main question raised by the case at bar is whether or not the lien of the judgment subsequently obtained against Ranney by Macke reached the excess in value (above the statutory limit) which the allotted homestead appears to have afterwards acquired.

The lien of a judgment upon realty in Missouri is founded on statute. By the terms of its creation the lien impresses “lands, tenements and heredita[688]*688ments liable to be sold upon execution.” R. S. 1889, see. 6048, same as sec. 2767 of 1879.

The effect of the section cited is to limit the force of the words “real estate,” in section 6011 (R. S. 1889), to a narrower meaning than they would otherwise bear through the aid of section 6570. But the last named section is only applicable where the construction it furnishes is not plainly repugnant to the intent of the legislature or of the context of the statute to be construed. But in regard to judgment liens, section 6048 supplies context which qualifies the broad meaning that section 6011 might be construed to have without such context.

The homestead act declares that real property coming within its protection is “exempt from attachment and execution,” subject to certain exceptions as to prior debts not relevant to the pending controversy. R. S. 1889, sec. 5435.

It is evident from the language of that section that, as between a judgment creditor and his debtor in possession of a homestead within the statutory size and value, the judgment (on a debt created since the record of the homestead deed) creates no lien on the homestead property. Harrington v. Utterbach (1874) 57 Mo. 519; Holland v. Kreider (1885) 86 Mo. 59; Biffle v. Bullam (1893) 114 Mo. 50 (21 S. W. Rep. 450).

But does the lien touch or hold the surplus of size or value of the homestead?

The'Missouri law provides a mode to set out a homestead of statutory amount from a larger tract of which it forms part. The provisions of that law give the judgment debtor in an execution (levied on the excess) a right to choose what part of the homestead estate (within the limits of value and size) shall be protected by the exemption (if he declines to choose, it is otherwise selected), “and the sheriff shall then [689]*689proceed with the levy of such execution upon the residue of such real estate” (R. S. 1879; sec. 2690, same as sec. 5436 of 1889).

This right of selection (as well as other provisions of the homestead law, mentioned later) can not be reconciled with the idea that, as against the debtor, the judgment lien reaches the excess of quantity or value of the homestead beyond the statutory maximum, before an ascertainment, and setting out, of the part to which the exemption shall apply.

As was said by the supreme court of Vermont, in construing a section of their law (Rev. Laws, Vt. 1880, see. 1895) which is substantially, and almost literally, the same as our section 5436 (E. S. 1889), “according to these provisions, the homestead must be set out from the residue before the residue can be set out on the execution.” Fairbanks v. Devereaux (1876) 48 Vt. 552.

Our homestead statute was in great part transplanted from Vermont. Eulings in that state upon language embodied in our own law are entitled to, and have justly been accepted as having, at least, very persuasive, and sometimes authoritative, force here. Skouten v. Wood (1874) 57 Mo. 380; Shindler v. Givens (1876) 63 Mo. 394.

Under Missouri law the debtor having a homestead may sell it, invest the proceeds in another homestead, and carry the exemption of the first homestead into the one subsequently acquired, even as against debts created before the acquisition of the latter. R. S. 1879, sec. 2696, same as sec. 5442 of 1889.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
33 S.W. 448, 131 Mo. 682, 1895 Mo. LEXIS 115, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/macke-v-byrd-mo-1895.