19 Mo. 261 | Mo. | 1854
delivered the opinion of the court.
The property mentioned in the two subdivisions of the eleventh section of the act of 1845, above named, is of the following description, viz : “ First, ten head of choice hogs, ten head of choice sheep, two cows and calves, one plough, one axe, one hoe, and one set of plough gears; second, working animals of the value of sixty-five dollars.”
The act of 1853, to amend an act amendatory of “ An act to regulate executions,” approved March 26, 1845, approved February 6,1847, is as follows : Sec. 1. “ The first section of the act to which this is amendatory, shall be so amended as to add .after the word “dollars,” concluding said section, the words, “ or in absence of other property, debts and wages to the amount of one hundred and fifty dollars.” This last act took effect from its passage, which was on the 9th February, 1853.
The act of 1847 did not include “ debts or wages,” where there was no property; the act of 1853 was intended to embrace debts or wages, and to exempt $150 in amount of such, in favor of the debtor in the execution. The judgment, therefore, of the lower court, exempting the indebtedness of the garnishees from the execution of Gregory, in this case, was erroneous.
These proceedings were had before the act of 1853 went into effect, and of course, cannot be helped out by that act; and, although the words of the act of 1847, “ any other property, real, personal or mixed,” are very comprehensive, yet we think they were not designed to include debts or wages nor was it the intention of the legislature, under this law, to include, under these terms, wha-t was not then liable to execution. The debts due to a man, or the wages due to a man, were not subject to be seized and levied on under execution ; therefore, we cannot suppose the legislature intended, under these terms of exemption, to include subjects not then liable to execution.
The judgment below must be reversed, and the cause remanded for further proceedings, in accordance with this opinion,