20 Iowa 376 | Iowa | 1866
That the citizen or debtor may mortgage the identical property for the payment of the debt, does not at all conflict with the idea that he cannot waive the exemption of the statute, in his contract of indebtment; because the statute itself has provided for the execution of valid mortgages, without limit as to the property mortgaged. In the case of a judgment creditor applying to the court, or its officer, for an execution, the court, by its clerk, following the language of the law, says to him, “you may have the execution, but no exempt property shall be sold under it the creditor, however, says to the court, “ I will take your execution, but the debtor and myself have made a law for this case, which will control your writ and make it do what the law has declared it shall not do.” No court will permit parties thus to control its process so as to defeat the statute or render nugatory its most beneficent provisions. Without pursuing the discussion of the subject further in the opinion, we are agreed in the conclusion, that a person contracting a debt cannot, by a contemporaneous and simple waiver of the benefit of the exemption laws, entitle the creditor, in case of failure to pajr, to levy his execution against defendant’s objection uponexempt property. Such an agreement is contrary to public policy and will not be enforced.
This question has been decided differently in different States, and for a full discussion of it we refer to the following cases in Pennsylvania, holding that such waiver is
Affirmed.