16 Pa. Super. 152 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1901
Opinion by
Assuming that Mr. Hicks had authority, or that the Peoples’ Building and Loan Association is estopped to deny his authority to make the agreement of December 23,1893 with Thomas P. Gehr, it would follow that by virtue of the latter’s assignment for the benefit of creditors, his title to the McFarland note and his interest, under the Hicks agreement, in the McFarland judgment passed to his assignee, unless that result was prevented by the reservation in his deed “of such an amount of property, real, personal and mixed as is by law exempt.” Such reservation entitles the assignor to retain and have set apart to him any of the assigned property or money, being the proceeds thereof, to the amount of $300. His right of selection is not confined to any particular description of property, and his right to the property, when selected, is as perfect as if it had been specially excepted out of the assignment. After he has selected the property, certainly after it has been appraised and set apart to him, he may make what disposition he pleases of the reserved property. But none of the cases are authority for the proposition that it is not incumbent on him to make the selection of the property that he will retain. The time when the demand is to be made depends upon the circumstances, but that he must indicate in some unequivocal manner that he elects to retain the property, or to have set apart to him the proceeds thereof, under the reservation contained in his deed, is clear. Speaking of Peterman’s Appeal, 76 Pa. 116, a case much relied on here, Mr. Justice Green said: “We certainly did not say, or mean to say, in that case, that a demand was not necessary, or that the right to claim the benefit of the exemption could not be waived by undue laches. The decided cases on those subjects were not overruled or even discussed. On the contrary we recognized the facts that the benefit of the exemption was regularly claimed, that personal property was actually selected, appraised and set apart, to a certain amount, and that as to the balance of the exemption it was claimed as soon as the right to demand and receive it arose: ” Chilcoat’s Appeal, 101 Pa. 22. See also Shaeffer’s Appeal, 101 Pa. 45, 50. In the present ease there was an appraisement of personal property, and this was claimed and set apart to the assignor. The McFarland note
The decree is affirmed and the appeal dismissed at the costs of the appellants.