In re Meiburg, 2807.
| Decision Date | 28 November 1932 |
| Docket Number | No. 2807.,2807. |
| Citation | 1 F. Supp. 892 |
| Parties | In re MEIBURG. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Iowa |
O. J. Reimers, of Rock Rapids, Iowa, for petitioners.
Simon Fisher, of Rock Rapids, Iowa, for respondent.
The above-entitled matter came before the court on the 3d day of November, 1932, on the petition of Henry E. Meiburg and John H. Reimers for review of an order made and entered on the 4th day of May, 1932, by H. S. Snyder, referee in bankruptcy, wherein said referee finds that the bankrupt and her husband had been engaged in a joint farming adventure, and jointly owned a large amount of live stock and farm machinery, and required the same to be scheduled, and that an order of sale thereof be entered. The order, so far as it pertained to the personal property, affected only Henry E. Meiburg, husband of the bankrupt; the remaining part of the order related to a quarter section of land owned by the petitioner John H. Reimers, father of the bankrupt, which land had been the subject of a devise by said John H. Reimers to the bankrupt in a joint will made by him and his deceased wife in her lifetime. The order of the referee finds that John H. Reimers had a life estate only in this land, and that the bankrupt was the owner of the remainder, and required the same to be scheduled as assets of the bankrupt, The evidence without controversy shows that Meta E. Meiburg filed a voluntary petition in bankruptcy on the 18th day of February, 1932, and was adjudicated bankrupt on the 19th. She gave her occupation as a housewife, and scheduled only a small amount of personal property, including household goods, automobile, 1,000 bushels of corn, and 1,000 bushels of oats. She also scheduled a lease for the year 1932 on two quarter sections of land, being the northwest quarter of section 6, township 98, range 45, and the northeast quarter of section 1, township 98, range 46, in Lyon county, Iowa. In addition, she scheduled a quarter section of land incumbered by first mortgage in the sum of $13,982, and a second mortgage in the sum of $7,000, with a sum due as rent thereon in the sum of $850. There were some other items not material to be mentioned.
Bankrupt and her husband did not live upon the quarter section of land owned by her, but they had for the past eleven years resided upon the farm of bankrupt's father, John H. Reimers, with respect to which bankrupt scheduled the lease for the coming year. When bankrupt and her husband were married, bankrupt's husband, Henry E. Meiburg, had a considerable amount of personal property in the form of horses, cattle, and farming implements, but the evidence fails to show that the bankrupt had any personal property at that time. Bankrupt's husband and bankrupt farmed for a number of years on different farms prior to moving onto the farm of bankrupt's father eleven years before the adjudication of the bankrupt. The husband had accumulated considerable personal property. He had made a business of raising cattle, horses, and live stock, and feeding and selling the same. About the time bankrupt and husband moved onto her father's farm, the exact time or year does not appear, bankrupt's husband became involved in the ownership or operation of an elevator, with whom the record does not show, but he testified that a judgment was obtained against him, the amount or date of which does not appear in the evidence. When the elevator controversy developed, according to the testimony of bankrupt and her husband, in fear that this judgment would be enforced against the husband's property, it was agreed that bankrupt should take the lease of the farm on which they were living from her father in her name, but that the husband should then own all of the personal property, should continue to farm the land, but should give bankrupt enough money to pay the rent. It also appears without controversy that, when trouble over the elevator came, whether before or after the judgment does not appear, bankrupt's husband carried his bank account in bankrupt's name, and this custom prevailed for a considerable number of years and up to the time bankrupt was adjudicated. It may, and I think must be conceded that the taking of the lease in bankrupt's name was because bankrupt and her husband conceived that by so doing the lease and crop raised would be out of the reach of the judgment creditor. I think it must also be conceded that the same motive induced the carrying of the bank account of the husband in bankrupt's name. There is some testimony of petitioner, Henry E. Meiburg, given in response to leading questions, tending to imply that he and his wife were jointly interested in the farming venture, but he explains later that what he meant was that she was interested with him as his wife. The evidence is without controversy that bankrupt contributed nothing in the shape of money or property to the husband's farming venture, except that the lease of the farm was taken in her name. In other respects she was a housewife and nothing more. The husband operated the farm as completely as farmers usually do, and annually gave the bankrupt the money to pay her father for the rent of the land. Whether this was by turning...
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