22 Minn. 144 | Minn. | 1875
Between July 27, and November 12, 1872, plaintiff sold and delivered to defendant, at his request, certain building materials, of the value of $299.20, for the purpose of being used, and which in fact were used, in the. erection of a certain building on a part of a village lot in Winnebago City, then owned and occupied by defendant as his homestead. In May following plaintiff filed and recorded in the proper register of deeds’ office the requisite notice, affidavit and verified statement of account, to secure a lien upon said building and premises. This action is brought to recover the balance claimed to be due on such account, to wit, $136.12, and to enforce the same as a lien against said, property. On a trial by the court without a jury, upon these facts a judgment was ordered and entered in favor of plaintiff for such balance and costs, adjudging the amount a lien against said premises and buildings, and ordering a sale thereof to satisfy the judgment, etc. The question presented is whether this judgment can bo upheld under the amendment to the homestead exemption act, adopted in 1869, which is as follows: “Such exemption shall not extend to any contract for a lien, or upon which a lien would arise under the lien laws of this state, for work done or material furnished in the erection or repair of a dwelling-house, or other building, on said land.” Laws 1869, ch. 26.
The contract alleged in this case is one of sale and' deliv
It is claimed, however, that the decision in that case is not applicable to the present, because the last clause of the above quoted amendment operates as a modification of the then existing lien laws. This is not so, either in terms or in its effect. It is what it purports to be — simply an amendment of a section of the statute relating to homestead exemptions, and purporting to except from its operation cases founded upon ‘ ‘ a contract for a lien, or upon which a
Assuming, however, that the legislature intended, by this amendment, specifically to give to a material man, in the absence of any agreement, the right to secure and enforce his claim as a lien upon his debtor’s homestead, and that the section as amended is susceptible of such a construction, it could not be upheld as a constitutional exercise of legislative power under § 12 of the bill of rights. This provision of the constitution imposes upon the legislature the duty of exempting from seizure or sale, for the payment of any debt or liability, a reasonable amount of property, and of determining such amount by law. In the discharge of this duty, and the exercise of its undoubted power, its judgment and discretion as to the amount of the exemption, and its reasonableness, are final and conclusive, and it may increase or diminish such amount from time to time, according to its own views of an enlightened public policy. Beyond this, however, it cannot constitutionally go. Discrimination, in its exemption laws, between different classes of creditors and kinds of debts or liabilities, is a species of class legislation which is absolutely prohibited. This must be regarded as the settled doctrine in this state. Tuttle v. Strout, 7 Minn. 465 ; Cogel v. Mickow, 11 Minn. 475.
So much of the judgment appealed from as decrees a lien upon the premises therein described for the amount thereof, and orders a sale of all defendant’s right, title, interest and estate therein to satisfy the same, is reversed.