Reed v. Holbrook

• Decision Date: 04 August 1905
• Citation: 123 Ga. 781,51 S.E. 720
• Parties: REED. v. HOLBROOK.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

123 Ga. 781

51 S.E. 720

REED.

v.HOLBROOK.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

Aug. 4, 1905.

Homestead—Exemptions — Notice to Creditor.

Where personalty duly exempted was used in connection with the labor of the applicant and his family in the making of crops on land purchased by him subsequently to the exemption, title to which was taken in his own name, and the proceeds of the sale of the crops were applied to the payment of the purchase money of the land, such land was subject to a debt afterwards contracted by the applicant for provisions and supplies for himself and family; the creditor having no notice as to how the land had been paid for, and having extended credit knowing that the legal title to the land was in the applicant, and upon the belief, in good faith, that he had an absolute and unincumbered title to the same. The record ef the exemption was not of itself sufficient to put the creditor on notice of the homestead character of the land.

(Syllabus by the Court.)

Error from Superior Court Hart County; Horace M. Holden, Judge.

Action by J. W. Holbrook against Aaron Reed. Judgment for plaintiff. Under levy of execution, defendant claimed the property as a homestead as trustee for his wife. Judgment for plaintiff, and claimant brings error. Affirmed.

J. H. Skelton, O. C. Brown, and W. L. Hodges, for plaintiff in error.

A. G. & Julian McCurry, for defendant in error.

FISH, P. J. Holbrook had an execution against Aaron Reed levied upon certain land claimed as homestead property by Reed as trustee for his wife. Upon the trial the claimant admitted being in possession of the land at the time of the levy, and assumed the burden of proof, offering as evidence to support his claim the record of the proceedings exempting certain personal property, including three horses, several head of cattle, and farm supplies and implements, and testimony to the effect that the land levied upon had been bought from one T. T. Holbrook, as agent etc., with the proceeds of the sales of crops grown on the land and made with his labor and that of his wife and children, the beneficiaries of the exemption, and with the use of the exempted property. The plaintiff testified that he had no knowledge that the land had been purchased with the proceeds of the sale of such crops, but, on the contrary, believed the title thereto to be absolutely in Reed individually, as he (the plaintiff) had held the deed conveying the property from T. T. Holbrook into Reed as collateral security for certain indebtedness due him by Reed; that for a number of years he had sold Reed pro-visions and supplies; that the fi. fa. in this case was based upon a judgment against Reed for provisions; and that he "extended him the credit on the faith of this deed and that title to the land was in Aaron Reed." This deed, which was to Reed individually, and which bore no mark indicating that...