109 Ky. 493 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1900
Opinion op the coukt by
Affirming.
Certain creditor® of the appellant, Curtis, obtained judgments and caused execution® to issue thereon, which were levied on 20 acre®’ of land a.s the property of said Curtis, and the same was purchased by the appellee under sale made by virtue of said execution; and afterwards instituted the proceeding to obtain possession of said land. The appellant made defense by answer; the substance of which is that he is a tona fide housekeeper, with a family, and was residing upon, said land at the time the judgments were rendered and sale made, and that said land was worth less than $1,000, and claimed- that it was exempt from execution. The answer further shows that he received a pension amounting to less than $1,000 for services asa volunteer soldier in the service of the United States, that a pension check therefor was issued to him, and that by the laws of (the United States and of Kentucky the same was in no way subject to the payment of debt®', and was exempt from attachment, distress or execution. It is further alleged that, without converting said check into money, he exchanged the same for the land in controversy, and that said land is worth les-s than $1,000, and that he paid no other sum except the pension check therefor, and that he owned no other land except the land in contro-
The contention of appellant is that the pension check or money could, in no event, be subjected to the payment of the debt in question, and therefore he had1 a right to invest it in a homestead, which was in like- manner exempt from seizure and sale. It is. certain that the pension check could not have been subjected to the payment of the debt in question. We are referred by appellant to various decisions of this court holding that a party may sell his homestead, and invest the proceeds in another homestead, which will remain exempt from execution. We are also referred to decisions- sustaining the right of the owner of a homestead to make any disposition, thereof that he desires to. For instance, he may make a voluntary conveyance of same, or he may convey it to a creditor with a view to prefer such creditor to other creditors, and no such conveyance can be successfully attacked, or set aside, or .subjected to the payment of any debt. See Brame v. Craig, 12 Bush, 404; Pribble v. Hall, 13 Bush, 61; Cooper v Arnett, 95 Ky., 603; (26 S. W., 811); Lear v. Totten, 14 Bush, 101, and Musgrave v. Parish, (Ky.) (11 S. W., 464). I't is insisted for appellant that the- same principle should be applied to the investment or reinvestment of the- pension in question, it being contended that the reasoning of the decisions, supra, should apply to the investment of the pension aforesaid; the contention being that the reason for the doctrine announced in the decision supra is that, the homestead being exempt from execution, no creditor has a right to complain -of any disposition that the owner may make of the homestead; that no creditor could look to the