Chance v. Norris

• Decision Date: 15 March 1898
• Citation: 143 Mo. 235,44 S.W. 1116
• Parties: CHANCE v. NORRIS.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

44 S.W. 1116

143 Mo. 235

CHANCE v. NORRIS.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

March 15, 1898.

FAILURE TO ASSERT CLAIM — HOMESTEAD.

The grantee of a judgment debtor cannot hold the land as exempt against purchaser at a sale on execution issued on said judgment, who has received a sheriff's deed, merely because such debtor was the head of a family, and owned no other property when he conveyed it, and the land was worth less than the exemptions secured to him by Rev. St. 1889, § 4907, where he did not, at the time of the levy, or on the day of sale, select the land as exempt, and no claim of homestead or other specific exemption is asserted.

Appeal from circuit court, Boone county; John A. Hockaday, Judge.

Ejectment by Addie Chance against Parthenia Norris. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals. Affirmed.

H. S. Booth, for appellant. Joe H. Cupp, for respondent.

GANTT, P. J.

This is an action of ejectment for two lots, — 11 and 12, in block 5, in the original town of Centralia, Boone county. The petition is in the usual statutory form, and the answer is a general denial; and defendant further states that long prior to June 15, 1894, defendant purchased said property from G. E. Shock, for value received, and the same was conveyed to her by warranty deed, which deed was put of record on the same date, and defendant has been in possession ever since. Defendant, further answering, says that at the time she bought said lots, and long prior thereto, they were, under the exemption statute of the state, exempt from execution and sale for the debts of said Shock, he being then, as now, the head of a family; and that the execution sale and attempted conveyance of said lots by sheriff's deed to plaintiff passed no title to said lots, and that defendant is the legal owner, and entitled to possession of same. The reply was a general denial. There was judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals.

No instructions were asked or given. No exceptions to evidence were taken or saved. The evidence disclosed that one G. E. Shock became the owner of the lots in suit by deed from J. M. Shock dated November 1, 1883, and recorded November 3, 1883; that on April 22, 1892, J. A. Chance obtained judgment against said G. E. Shock in a justice court; that execution issued returnable in 90 days, and was duly returned July 22, 1892, "No property found in Boone county whereof to make levy of said writ;" that a transcript of the judgment, duly certified, was...