Hoffman v. Hill

• Decision Date: 09 January 1892
• Citation: 28 P. 623,47 Kan. 611
• Parties: M. HOFFMAN v. ANDREW HILL
• Court: Kansas Supreme Court

28 P. 623

47 Kan. 611

M. HOFFMAN v. ANDREW HILL

Supreme Court of Kansas

January 9, 1892

Error from Russell District Court.

THE opinion states the facts.

Judgment affirmed.

H. G Laing, for plaintiff in error.

Harry L. Pestana, for defendant in error.

VALENTINE J. All the Justices concurring.

OPINION

VALENTINE, J.

The only question involved in this case is, whether lot number 5, in block number 16, in the city of Bunker Hill, in Russell county, was and is exempt as a homestead from a certain attachment and judgment and order of sale. The attachment was levied upon the property on June 30, 1888. The judgment was rendered on October 8, 1888, and the property was sold on an order of sale issued on such judgment on January 26, 1889; and on March 2, 1889, Andrew Hill, who was the defendant below and the judgment debtor, and who is now the defendant in error, moved the court to set aside the sale, upon the ground "that at the time of the rendition of said judgment, said lot 5, block 16, was, and for a long time prior thereto had been and ever since has been, a part of the homestead of said defendant and his family, used and occupied as such, and exempt from seizure and sale by virtue of process issued on said judgment." The court sustained the motion, and the plaintiff, M. Hoffman, brought the case to this court for review.

As the court below found in favor of Hill, the party claiming the property as his homestead, and against Hoffman, the party claiming under the attachment, the judgment, the order of sale, and the sale, it will be proper for this court to construe the evidence introduced upon the motion to set aside the sale liberally, for the purpose of upholding the views of the court below; and construing the evidence in this manner we think the facts of the case are substantially as follows: For several years prior to the levy of the aforesaid attachment, Hill was the owner of lots numbers 5 and 6, in block number 16, in the city of Bunker Hill. These lots adjoined each other and constituted only a single tract of land, and together contained only about one-eighth of an acre. Hill was the head of a family consisting of himself, his wife, and an adopted daughter. There was a building on lot number 6, the porch of which extended over the boundary line between the two lots and onto lot number 5, which building Hill and his family occupied and used as a residence, and also as a hotel and boarding-house. There was also a building on lot number 5 which Hill and family used in connection with their residence, hotel, and boarding-house. There were also out-buildings partly on both lots. Hill and his family in fact used these two lots together as a homestead and for hotel and boarding-house purposes; and this they had done for several years prior to the levy of the aforesaid attachment, and they still occupy the same for such purposes. Hoffman claims that the property is not a homestead under the provisions of the homestead exemption laws, for several reasons; but...