Wagner v. Olson

54 N.W. 286, 3 N.D. 69, 1893 N.D. LEXIS 1
North Dakota Supreme Court·Decided January 25, 1893·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinion

Bartholomew, J.

This controversy arises under the exemption laws of this state. The defendant, and appellant herein, was sheriff of Walsh County, ‘and as such received a writ of attachment in an action brought by the firm of Dodson, Fisher & Brockman against John P. Wager,, the plaintiff and respondent herein. The sheriff at once laid the writ upon a stock of merchandise consisting of harness, harness leather, harness hardware, blankets, robes, etc., belonging to the respondent. Respondent made an effort to claim his exemptions under the statute, but his claim was not recognized by the office;-, whereupon he brought this action in claim and delivery, resulting in a verdict and judgment in his. favor.

Our statute (§ 5x28, Comp. Laws) gives the debtor, in addition to certain absolute exemptions, other personal property, not to exceed in the aggregate $1,500 in value. Section 5130 provides that, when the debtor desires to avail himself of the additional exemptions, he must make and deliver to the officer who has levied process upon his property a verified schedule of all his personal property, and provides that any property owned by the debtor, and not included in the schedule, shall not be exempt. Other provisions provide for an appraisement, and that from the appraisement so made, if over the limitation in value, the debtor may select the amount of his additional exemptions. The claim for the benefit of these exemptions must be made within three days after the notice of the levy. Within the time limited, the respondent (defendant in the attachment action) served upon the officer the following notice, (omitting title:) “To the sheriff of said County of Walsh: Take notice that the above named defendant hereby claims the following personal property owned by him as exempt from attachment and execution in the above entitled action, that is to say, viz: the personal property, book accounts, and notes mentioned in the schedule hereunto annexed, and made a part of this notice; and you are further notified that I choose M. F. O’Brien, a disinterested citizen of said county, not related to either party, to act as my appraiser in fixing the [71] value upon all the personal property levied upon by you, in order that I may select the exemptions of fifteen hundred dollars given me by law. Dated, May 13th, 1889. John P. Wagner.” To this was attached an itemized list of property! being the same property described in the complaint, and a verification by Mr. Wagner, in which he says “that the foregoing list of personal property is a complete schedule of all his personal property, of every kind and character, including money on hand, and debts due and owing deponent, claimed by him as exempt under the laws of the Territory of Dakota.” No other schedule of personal property was made by respondent. It is reasonably certain from the evidence that another demand for this same property was made after the appraisement.

The appellant requested certain instructions, involving the following points: First, that the schedule was insufficient for the reason that it did not cover all of respondent’s property; second, the demand for exemptions was insufficient in that it did not appear that the articles demanded were selected from the appraisement; third, that there was no evidence of the value of the property; and, fourth, that the property purchased from Dodson, Fisher & Brockman, and for the purchase price of which the attachment action was brought, was so intermingled and combined with the property claimed as exempt that they could not be identified and separated. These requests were all refused, and the court, in its charge to the jury, said: “I say, as a'matter of law, that all the proceedings of the plaintiff leading up to his demand for exemptions in this case were had within the time and in the manner prescribed by law.” On argument, in addition to the points made in his requests, appellant urges that the instruction quoted was error, because it appears by the evidence that the property demanded covered the entire appraisement, which exceeded the exemption limitation in value; or, if this be not true, that there was no evidence in the case showing the appraised value of the property claimed. It is far from clear upon the record that these last points were ever called to the attention of [72] the trial court, but as, under the instruction, they might have been made on the motion for a new tidal, and as we are not sure they were not, we shall consider them.

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Wagner v. Olson, 54 N.W. 286, 3 N.D. 69, 1893 N.D. LEXIS 1 (N.D. 1893).

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