Steenberge v. Low

46 Misc. 285
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 15, 1905
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 46 Misc. 285 (Steenberge v. Low) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Steenberge v. Low, 46 Misc. 285 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1905).

Opinion

Kellogg, J. M., J.

The plaintiff, as receiver in supplementary proceedings of Leslie W. Low, brings this action to [286]*286recover certain real estate which was devised to the defendants Leslie W. Low and Harriet Low, his wife, “ for and during their natural lives and the natural life of the survivor of them,” contending that the defendants are tenants by the entirety, and the husband had the sole right of possession during their joint lives, and that he has succeeded to that right. The authorities in this State hold, to the contrary, that a husband and wife who are tenants by the entirety occupy as"tenants in common during their joint lives. Hiles v. Fisher, 144 N. Y. 306; Grosser v. City of Rochester, 148 id. 235.

It follows, therefore, that the defendant Harriet Low was lawfully in possession of the undivided one-half of the premises, and when a demand was made upon her for the whole she rightly refused the same. The husband living with her upon the premises and having asserted no right hostile to the plaintiff’s rights, if he had any, an action of ejectment cannot be maintained against either the husband or the wife.

The plaintiff, as receiver, cannot maintain this action on the theory that it is brought to partition the premises. The law has provided a sale by execution as the ordinary legal remedy by which the creditor may realize his debt from the property of the debtor, and in the nature of an exemption and upon grounds of public policy it has given the debtor, after the sale of his real estate, a year in which to redeem, and has provided that until the sheriff’s deed is given he may have the use and enjoyment of the property so sold. In other words, the right to redeem and a temporary possession are exempted from the sale. They thus become property exempt from levy and sale upon execution. Code Civ. Pro., § 1441. Proceedings supplementary to execution were not devised to change or defeat the ordinary remedy by execution, or to deprive the debtor of the right given him to enjoy temporarily his real property after it is sold upon execution, but is intended as an equitable remedy more in the nature of a creditor’s bill to reach property which, from its nature, or from the fact that it is out of the jurisdiction, or that it is hidden or in some way covered up, cannot effectually be reached by an execution. It is provided that no property [287]*287expressly exempt from sale under an execution shall be reached in supplementary proceedings. Code Civ. Pro., § 2463. Here the debtor’s interest in the property is subject to sale on execution, and if he is now put out of possession bjr the receiver his right of redemption and right of enjoyment during fifteen months which the law gives him are taken away from him. The provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure relating to executions and supplementary proceedings must be read together and considered as a harmonious scheme provided to reach the debtor’s property which ought to be applied upon the debt. The execution being the ordinary remedy for the collection of the debt — the other an extraordinary remedy provided to reach property which the execution cannot reach, but not property which by express provision of law is saved from the effect of the execution. And the receiver ought not to be able to get possession from the debtor during the time which the statute has given him in which to- redeem from an execution sale. Otherwise, while the section gives the right of redemption and the possession until the deed is given, this right intended for the benefit of the poor debtor may be entirely defeated by using another remedy which is called an equitable one and which was never intended to bring about any such result. In Moyer v. Moyer, 7 App. Div. 523, an order adjudging a defendant in contempt for not conveying real estate within his jurisdiction to the receiver was reversed, the court citing with approval Westbrook, J., in Albany City Rational Bank v. Gaynor, 67 How. Pr. 421-423: “ The owner of a judgment which is a lien upon real estate seeks to- obtain possession of the real estate through a receiver appointed in supplementary proceedings without a sale under the judgment. This cannot be done, for it would be a practical repeal of the statutes providing for the sale of real estate under a judgment.” Citing Bunn v. Daly, 24 Hun, 526; Tinkey v. Langdon, 13 Wkly. Dig. 384.

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Bluebook (online)
46 Misc. 285, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/steenberge-v-low-nysupct-1905.