2 Vt. 404 | Vt. | 1829
The opinion of the Court was delivered by.
The statute, directing the levying and serving of executions, exempts from execution, “ one cow, and such suitable apparel, bedding, tools, arms, and articles of household furniture, as may be necessary for upholding life.” — (Comp. Stat. p. 20S. s. 1.) — Though the exemption, in terms, is confined to executions, yet as the object of an attachment is to take property to be sold on execution in satisfaction of the judgment which may be recovered, chattels, which cannot lawfully be seized and sold on execution, cannot lawfully be attached.
Whether or not the machine in question was exempt from attachment, depends upon the meaning and construction of the word tools in the statute. A provision, substantially the same as the one contained in the statute of this state, exists in several of the other states ; and in some of them, adjudications are to be found, fixing the meaning and extent of the provisions. In Massachusetts, the statute exempts the tools of any debtor, necessary for his trade or occupation, from attachment and execution j and it appears to have been there decided, that neither implements of husbandry, necessary for tilling land, nor a printing press, types, and other implements of a printing office, are tools within the meaning of the statute. — (Daily vs. May, 5 Mass. 313. — Buckingham vs. Billings, 13 Mass. 82.) In the last mentioned case, the court said, that the statute, being in derogation of the common rights of creditors, ought to have a strict construction, ac
Judgment affirmed.
Burbank vs. Reed, Washington County, July Term, 1822.