Rosenthal v. Scott

• Decision Date: 14 October 1879
• Citation: 2 N.W. 909,41 Mich. 632
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court
• Parties: SAMUEL ROSENTHAL v. DOUGLASS SCOTT.

2 N.W. 909

41 Mich. 632

SAMUEL ROSENTHAL v. DOUGLASS SCOTT.

Supreme Court of Michigan

October 14, 1879

Exemption laws are beneficial in their character, and are to be fairly and liberally construed. Where a party duly selected from his stock in trade to an amount exempt by law, held, that he could use or dispose of such property as he saw fit, without subjecting it to liability.

Holmes & Carpenter, for plaintiff in error.

Turnbull & McDonald, for defendant in error.

CAMPBELL, C.J.

The questions brought up by this record relate entirely to the exemption of property from execution, and the case is one where, upon the undisputed facts, there is room for much discussion.

Rosenthal was engaged in dry goods and millinery, and analogous business, in Alpena, and his stock was levied on by the sheriff in December, 1877. Rosenthal was allowed to select $250 worth of goods, which were set apart by themselves, and were levied on upon a justice's execution a few days thereafter, and his claim for their protection disregarded. He then replevied.

On the trial the jury found against him as having lost his exemption, under certain charges which gave them to understand that unless Rosenthal was engaged in business, at the time of the justice's levy, which required these goods for its prosecution, or had only temporarily suspended it, they were not exempt.

The court urged somewhat strongly a view of the facts which seems to have left them very little option as to their verdict. We do not propose to discuss the doctrines at length, because we cannot conceive any ground which justified leaving any such considerations to the jury. The statutes required by the constitution to secure exemptions are not to be frittered away by constructions which would destroy their value. They are beneficial statutes, to be construed fairly and sensibly. Their object is to prevent men from being stripped of all their possessions, and cut off from chances of recovery. The amount of property exempt being where the debtor can honestly and effectually withhold it from his creditors, they cannot complain of any use he may make of it which is not a plain evasion or fraud of the law. All exempt property is intended either for use or disposal, according to its nature, and it may be sold or used in such way as to serve the necessities of the owner without doing wrong to any one.

When the statute exempts a certain amount of the property to enable a person to carry on the business in which he is principally engaged, if that business is the selling of...