16 Kan. 293 | Kan. | 1876
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The only question in this case is, whether a steer belonging to the plaintiff was exempt from seizure upon execution. The plaintiff, who was the head of a family, and engaged in farming, owned but one horse and this steer. It was about twenty months old, and had never been worked. He had contracted for a pair of steers, and intended to work them together. This one he had paid for and taken home; the other he had not. When the animal was taken on execution he replevied it, and having obtained possession of his mate, commenced working them together. The first time they were so yoked and worked was on the day of the trial before the justice, some few days after the seizure. Was it exempt? The district court evidently thought it was not, and charged the jury, that if it was used in good faith as a work animal, it was exempt, but if it was not, and had not been so used, it was not exempt. Was this ruling correct? The statute reads, “Two cows, ten hogs, one yoke of oxen, and one horse or mule, or, in lieu of one yoke of oxen and one horse or mule, a span of horses or mules; twenty sheep,” etc. Gen. Stat., p. 474, §3, fifth clause. It is well settled that exemption laws are to be liberally construed, though not of course that they should be so construed as to exempt articles obviously outside of the legislative purpose. Now the fact that this animal was not actually used, and had never been used as a work animal, does not seem to us properly decisive of the question of exemption. The expression, “yoke of oxen,” as used in an exemption statute, does not necessarily
The judgment will be reversed, and the case remanded with instructions to grant a new trial.