Sieg v. Greene

225 F. 955, 141 C.C.A. 79, 1915 U.S. App. LEXIS 2155
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedJuly 24, 1915
DocketNo. 4348
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 225 F. 955 (Sieg v. Greene) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sieg v. Greene, 225 F. 955, 141 C.C.A. 79, 1915 U.S. App. LEXIS 2155 (8th Cir. 1915).

Opinion

LEWIS, District Judge

(after stating the facts as above). [ 1 -4J 1. One of the defenses was that the deed from Size to Sieg could [958]*958not be avoided on either ground 'stated in the bill or for any other reason, because the property conveyed was at the time of its conveyance the homestead of Size and his family who at that time and for many years theretofore had continuously resided on it.

The Iowa statute on the subject may be epitomized: Exemption of the homestead from judicial sale; requirement that husband and wife- join in the conveyance to render it valid; embraces the house used as a home by the owner, and if he has two or more houses thus used he may select which he will retain, and if not within a city or town plat it must not contain in the aggregate more than forty acres, and must not embrace more than one dwelling house. Code of Iowa 1897 and Supplement thereto 1907, §§ 2972-2978. Under this statute the homestead claim attaches to the undivided interest of a tenant in common. Thorn v. Thorn, 14 Iowa, 49, 81 Am. Dec. 451; Bolton v. Oberne, 79 Iowa, 278, 44 N. W. 547. A voluntary conveyance of the homestead is not fraudulent as to creditors. Delashmut v. Trau, 44 Iowa, 613; Officer v. Evans, 48 Iowa, 557-560; Foreman v. Bank, 128 Iowa, 661, 105 N. W. 164; Bank v. Glick, 134 Iowa, 323, 111 N. W. 970; Dettmer v. Behrens, 106 Iowa, 585, 76 N. W. 853, 68 Am. St. Rep. 326; Wheeler, etc., Co. v. Bjelland, 97 Iowa, 637, 66 N.. W. 885; Green v. Root (D. C.) 62 Fed. 191. The grantor in such a case need not receive full value. His creditors cannot take it, and have no concern about what he gets. Griffin v. Sheley, 55 Iowa, 513, 8 N. W. 343; Aultman v. Heiney, 59 Iowa, 654, 13 N. W. 856. The state statute and decisions control here. Bank v. Glass, 79 Fed. 706, 25 C. C. A. 151; Bankruptcy Act, § 6; Vitzthum v. Large (D. C.) 162 Fed. 685. The trustee cannot recover it. It was not an asset of the bankrupt estate, was beyond the reach of creditors and likewise of the trustee who represents them. But the right did not attach to that part of the tract used as a brickyard and its appurtenances. That was not a part of the farm, nor appurtenant thereto, and was not used as a part of the home. Mouriquand v. Hart, 22 Kan. 594, 31 Am. Rep. 200. At the time of the conveyance the entire tract contained 97.68 acres. The claim to the homestead right was confined to the undivided half interest in eighty acres. The other dwelling house and its appurtenant grounds occupied by Carpenter and family could- not be included in the homestead of| Size. The homestead exemption as claimed should have been sustained, and set off in eighty acres of the farm lands including the dwelling occupied by Size and family, and excluding the brick plant and yard, together with needed appurtenant ground, also the Carpenter dwelling and appurtenances, and also1 such additional acreage, if necessary, to1 bring the exemption within the limited area.

[5] Registration and récord of the deed was required and this was not done until within the prohibited four months period; it was therefore' voidable as to the excess over the homestead right. It follows that Sieg’s liability for rent would also be confined to what he received on one-half of, the excess.

[6, 7] 2. The issue as to Sieg’s claimed liability for the value of the brick turned over to him within the four months period by the [959]*959bankrupts, is more difficult. In its consideration we confine the inquiry to whether that transaction operated to effect a preference rendered voidable by section 60a and b of the Act; and this, because the, eridence entirely fails as a sufficient basis on which any claim that Ike transaction was in fact fraudulent, as charged in the bill, couid be rested, and additionally there is no finding of fact that way by the trial court which might relieve us iu part from a wholly independent consideration and conclusion in the matter. Thus coining to the question: Was it a preferential transfer voidable under the acc by fhe trustee?, we first note our conclusion that nothing appears to cause us to doubt that the agreement covering the manufacture a ul advanced payments therefor was in entire good faith—we so accept it. It was complete in its terms, nothing was left open for further negotiation and settlement by the parties. It was final and. biuuiug on them, and each could have enforced performance, or obtained damages for its breach. The property which Sieg received was produced with the money which he advanced under the agreement, a,rid when he received it no creditor of the bankrupts had acquhed any right in it or against it under local law. He took possession ui it not as a purchaser of that date, but iu virtue of his right which was created by the contract at the time it was made with the bankrupts, to have the property subjected to the payment of his claim. He took over a product which his money had wrought, and in doing so satisfied an equitable lien, which he had long before acquired under the contrae! and the facts and circumstances surrounding the transaction. Advancements made on the faith of certain property may give rise to the lien. Howard v. Delgado, 121 Eed. 26, 57 C. C. A. 270; Hauselt v. Harrison, 105 U. S. 401, 26 L. Ed. 1075. It may attach to property to be created and not in esse at the time of the agreement. Mitchell v. Winslow, 2 Story, 630, Fed. Cas. No. 9,673; Wright v. Bircher, 72 Mo. 179, 185, 37 Am. Rep. 433. It does not depend upon possession, The Menominie (D. C.) 36 Fed. 199. It may exist by implication growing out of facts and circumstances which create the equitable right. Soc. of Shakers v. Watson, 68 Eed. 730, 739, 15 C. C. A. 632.

The principle under consideration and the facts necessary to constilute a right to an equitable lien are fully considered and aptly illustrated by this court in A., T. & S. F. Ry. Co. v. Hurley, 153 Eed. 503, 82 C. C. A. 453. The railway company advanced money for coal to be delivered in the future. The coal company was put into bankruptcy and did not deliver the coal for which advancements were made. The railway company asked for an order directing the trustee to return to it the money so advanced as a preferential claim. This court, speaking through Judge Adams, said (153 Eed. 507, 82 C. C. A. 457):

“The money paid iu advance entitled the railway company to an amount ot coal winch the money so advanced would pay for according to the terms of the original contract. We think lire Inevitable meaning of the new arrangement, interpreted in the light of the conditions surrounding the parties and as necessarily inrended iiy them, was to set apart a sufficient amount oí coal after it should bo mined as security for the payment of advances made. This [960]*960result is not expressed in the conventional form of a mortgage or pledge, but the method of producing it was devised for the purpose of acquiring the needed money by the coal company and of furnishing security for its repayment. If the parties intended the arrangement to be one for borrowing and securing the repayment of money, we ought, as between them, to so regard it and to treat it as creating an equitable charge or lien, however inartificially it may have been expressed,” and again (153 Fed. 509, 82 C. C. A. 459): “In the light of these authorities we have no hesitation in holding that the equitable charge created by the parties before the bankruptcy of the coal company should be enforced against the estate in the hands of its trustees.”

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Bluebook (online)
225 F. 955, 141 C.C.A. 79, 1915 U.S. App. LEXIS 2155, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sieg-v-greene-ca8-1915.