54 Ala. 443 | Ala. | 1875
The judgment obtained by the appellant, on which the process of garnishment issued, was rendered on the 13th day of June, 1867. The right of the judgment debtor to an exemption of property from liability to its satisfaction, must be determined by the laws then existing. The provisions of the Constitution of 1868, in reference to exemptions, are, in express terms, prospective, not applicable to debts existing prior to its adoption. Until the adoption of that Constitution, the exemption of property from liability to the payment of debts, was purely statutory, and the right was limited to the head of a family. No debtor not having a family resident within the State, could claim an exemption. — Allen v. Manasse, 4 Ala. 554; Abercrombie v. Alderson, 9 Ala. 981; Boykin v. Edwards, 21 Ala. 261. The bill of exceptions purports to set out all the evidence, and it is not shown either by the claim of exemption or otherwise, that the debtor was the head of a family resident within the State. The circuit court, consequently, erred in allowing the claim, and discharging the garnishees.
Whether an exemption of debts, or of any chose in action, can be claimed by the judgment debtor if he is the head of a family, depends on the time the debt on which the appellant’s judgment was rendered was contracted, if the judgment was founded on a debt; whether it was contracted prior or subsequent to the 19th of February, 1867, and on the construction which may be given the enactment of that date, enlarging exemptions. — R. C. § 2884; Pamph. Acts, 1866-7, p. 611. Whether this enactment operates retrospectively, authorizing the exemptions it allows against debts contracted previous to its enactment, and if that is its construction, whether its constitutionality can be supported, are not questions now presented.
More than twelve months prior to the issue and service of
The statutes, from which the debtor must derive his right to the exemption now claimed, were designed rather for the benefit of the family, than for the individual benefit of the debtor, and to save the family from destitution, were liberally construed. The husband and father was under the legal and moral duty of maintaining wife and children. This duty was of as high obligation as that imposed by his contracts, and continued so long as there was a relation of legal dependence on him. The benefit the statutes intended to confer on him, was assistance in the discharge of this duty. The fact that he had obtained an exemption which may have been consumed in the support of the family, or converted into other property, or it may be wasted by him, does not lessen the duty of maintaining, or the necessities of the family. So long as that duty remains, and these necessities exist, the statutes intend the right to the exemptions shall continue. We hold the right of the debtor to the exemption claimed, if the facts necessary to its existence are shown, is not affected by the fact he had previously obtained an exemption.
For the error we have noticed, the judgment is reversed and the cause remanded. .