Sanford v. Anderson

95 N.W. 632, 69 Neb. 249, 1903 Neb. LEXIS 38
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedJune 3, 1903
DocketNo. 12,156
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 95 N.W. 632 (Sanford v. Anderson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sanford v. Anderson, 95 N.W. 632, 69 Neb. 249, 1903 Neb. LEXIS 38 (Neb. 1903).

Opinion

Hastings, C.

This is a rehearing of the case which appears in 3 Neb. (Unof.) 561. The question, clearly stated in the opinion,, is whether or not a receiver will be appointed pending proceedings to foreclose a mortgage where the premises consist of a single farm worth $6,000 to $8,000, which is occupied as the mortgagor’s family residence and embraces his homestead exemptions. No complaint is made at the-present time as to the statement of the case which appears [250]*250in the former opinion. It is, however, insisted that the conclusion there reached is wrong, because protecting from application upon the plaintiff’s mortgage the income from property which is not exempt as a homestead and can not be held by such a right from the mortgagor’s creditors, including the mortgagee.

It is conceded by the plaintiff that the decisions of this court in Chadron Loan & Building Ass’n v. Smith, 58 Neb. 469; Laune v. Hauser, 58 Neb. 663; Baker v. Grand Island Banking Co., 4 Neb. (Unof.) 100, and Joslin v. Williams, 3 Neb. (Unof.) 192, establish the rule in this state and under our statute, that the homestead right itself can be invaded only by an order of sale. It is, however, insisted, that the order appointing the receiver in this case, which left to the mortgagor possession of a portion of the mortgaged premises, selected by himself, of value considerably in excess of $2,000 does not invade any homestead right of the mortgagor; that it simply applies to the payment of this mortgage debt, for satisfaction of which ne had pledged all the property, that portion of the premises which the homestead law does not enable him to claim. It is energetically urged that the line of cases, commencing with Hoy v. Anderson, 39 Neb. 386; cited in the former opinion, which hold that where the property resided upon by the mortgagor is incumbered, the result is that the homestead right attaches to the mortgagor’s remaining interest in the entire tract, have no application in this case. It is claimed that here there is no question of a general creditor attacking the incumbered homestead, but merely an application of mortgaged property, outside of any possible homestead exemption, to the payment of the mortgage indebtedness, an application expressly allowed by statute in the state of Nebraska. Section 266 of the code.

The argument .derived from Hoy v. Anderson, in the former opinion, to show that the homestead right must, as against the plaintiff, be held to attach to the entire tract, since it is incumbered by plaintiff’s mortgage, seems [251]*251to us by no means conclusive. Of course, an execution creditor proceeding against this land in the absence of plaintiff’s mortgage, could force a homestead claimant to select $2,000 worth of the land and could sell the remainder. To say that, because he has a mortgage, plaintiff can not force such a selection, where it clearly appears that the rents and profits of the premises are necessary to satisfy his claim, would seem to be reasoning in a circle, and holding that the existence of the plaintiff’s lien, instead of insuring its satisfaction out of the land could be used to prevent such payment. It would seem much more consistent to hold plaintiff’s mortgage might be enforced by receivership proceedings, and the homestead right be required to be set off, unless the statute clearly • entitled the mortgagor to be relieved from the ordinary incidents of a mortgage as to the entire tract. The general provisions of the code certainly give plaintiff, in the absence of the homestead claim, a right to a receivership. Buck v. Stuben, 61 Neb. 70. The homestead statute seems, as clearly, to give no right to more than $2,000 worth of these premises. Consistency would seem to require that only $2,000 worth be set off for a homestead, if they are, as in this case, readily separable. Both statute and general principles of equity require that a court of equity apply the income from the remainder to the payment of the mortgage indebtedness where, as in this case, it is clearly necessary to the satisfaction of the mortgage.

It is quite true that the homestead statute, chapter 36, Compiled Statutes (Annotated Statutes, 6200), makes no provision for any setting off of the homestead, except when it is sought to be taken on execution. ■ Section 5. If, however, the right to appropriate the income from the excess belongs to the mortgagee, the powers of a court of equity are ample to secure a just and efficient method of ascertaining that excess.

“The boast of those who have administered equity jurisprudence, that its remedies may be so employed as to give complete relief to each complainant, would be palpably [252]*252vainglorious, had they not devised modes of enforcing their decrees, sufficiently stringent to compel obedience and sufficiently varied to answer every conceivable emergency.” Freeman, Executions (2d ed.), sec. 8a.

In fact, the essential question in this case seems to be whether or not the legislature, in providing only for final process against premises which include the homestead, has impliedly forbidden the use of a provisional remedy against such premises. The express limiting of the homestead right to $2,000 worth of property, would seem to sufficiently prevent its attaching to more. The cases following Hoy v. Anderson do not, by any means, attach it to more than $2,000 of property. They simply say that the lienholder must satisfy his claim out of the excess so far as he can, and this being so, any remainder must be deemed proceeds of the homestead right. Full force seems to be given to this statute when it is held to prevent the seizing of the homestead interest, itself, by means of anything short of the final process mentioned in section 3 of the act.

In the present case no objection is made that the quantity of land left is not worth $2,000. Defendant, himself, was permitted to select it. The failure of the law to provide any means for setting off homesteads in receivership proceedings, may be fairly attributed to the fact of these proceedings being always under the control and in the discretion of the court. The lawmaker may have remembered that equity jurisdiction had its original in providing remedies. Why should we not hold that he simply left the court’s hands free in this matter?

If, as this court has held, the appointment of a receiver is in the nature of an equitable execution, designed to reach the interest which the creditor might take on execution (Longfellow v. Barnard, 58 Neb. 612), why should not a mortgagee, who is entitled to a receiver, be allowed to seize the same property to the same extent as coiild a levying creditor. In Huston v. Canfield, 57 Neb. 345, it is held, that the only way in which the rents and profits of [253]*253real estate, pending a foreclosure,' can be reached, is by means of a receiver. It is there said that the practical effect of a receivership is the dispossession of the defendant. This is true and is ordinarily a sufficient reason for not disturbing homestead occupation by such an order; but where, as in this case, the homestead right does not attach to the entire property, and there is no objection on the ground of difficulty in separating it, we see no reason for not applying this “equitable execution” to the excess.

In the case of Chadron Loan & Building Ass’n v. Smith, 58 Neb. 469, a receiver was appointed for the property embraced in the mortgage Avhich was not occupied by defendant as a homestead.

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83 F.2d 493 (Eighth Circuit, 1936)
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Bluebook (online)
95 N.W. 632, 69 Neb. 249, 1903 Neb. LEXIS 38, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sanford-v-anderson-neb-1903.