In re Thompson

Citations

• 140 F. 257
• 1905 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 87

Syllabus

<p>1. Bankbuptct— Homestead Exemption — Abandonment.</p> <p>A debtor had lived with bis family upon a farm owned by him for several years, when his house was burned and he moved into one owned by another, but continued to use his farm and keep his stock there. Subsequently he moved to a town for the purpose of sending his children to school,-but without intention, of-remaining, except temporarily, and during such time he and his wife returned, built an addition to a small house, and executed and filed a declaration of homestead on the farm under the Washington statute (Ballinger’s Ann. Codes & St. § 5214 et seq.), which gives the right to a homestead only in the dwelling house in which the claimant resides and the land on which it is situated. This declaration was filed in contemplation of bankruptcy, and the debtor shortly after-wards filed a petition on which he was adjudicated a bankrupt Held that, under the statute as construed by the Supreme Court of the state, there had. not been an abandonment of the homestead which deprived the bankrupt of the right to claim the exemption.</p> <p>2. Homestead — Right to Exemption — Effect of Fraudulent Conveyance.</p> <p>Where a conveyance in fraud of creditors is set aside, the property is administered as that of the debtor, and as a matter of general law he is not precluded by the void conveyance from asserting his right to a homestead exemption therein as against his creditors. _</p> <p>TEd. Note. — For cases in point, see vol. 26, Cent. Dig. Homestead, §§ 349, 350.]</p> <p>3. Bankruptcy — Land Conveyed in Fraud of Creditors.</p> <p>Under Bankr. Act July 1, 1898, c. 541, §§ 67e, 70a (4), 30 Stat. 564, 566 [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, pp. 3449, 3451], by which the title to property conveyed by a bankrupt in fraud of creditors vests in his trustee, “except in so far as it is to property which is exempt,” such a conveyance of land does not deprive a bankrupt of the right to claim a homestead exemption therein, where the land has b