9 N.M. 113 | N.M. | 1897
On June 6, 1894, the plaintiff, the-New Mexico National Bank, recovered a judgment in the district court for Socorro county against the defendant, George L. Brooks, for $10,734.32 and costs. On April 27, 1896, execution was issued directed to the sheriff of Bernalillo county,, who called upon defendant to pay the same, or to show sufficient goods, chattels, effects 'and lands whereof the same might be satisfied, which defendant failed to do, and the sheriff, failing to find property of defendant, at the request of plaintiff' served the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Ee Railroad Company with garnishment qorocess. On June 2, 1896, the-said railroad company entered its special appearance, and moved to quash the garnishment proceeding. On June 6 this motion was overruled, and the garnishee was ruled to answer plaintiff’s interrogatories within ten days. The garnishee accordingly filed its answer, showing that it was indebted to the defendant, Brooks, on account of his salary as its live-stock ag'ent for the months of April and May, 1896, in the sum of $400, said salary being $200 per month. On June 20, the court rendered judgment against the said g’arnishee for the $400, admitted to be due defendant by its answer. It was afterwards shown that the defendant, Brooks, had actual notice of these garnishment proceedings, having been promptly notified hy the garnishee; that the garnishee’s answer was drawn up by the defendant’s attorneys, and that defendant himself took said answer to the attorneys of the garnishee with the request that .it be filed in time. But it is not shown that defendant knew when garnishee’s answer was filed. On October 2, 1896, the defendant, Brooks, filed his petition claiming the money for which judgment had been rendered against the garnishee as exempt, for the reason that it was his personal earnings, and necessary for the support of himself and family. The court thereupon ordered a stay of execution as against the garnishee until the matter could be heard, and defendant thereupon filed a motion to set aside the judgment against the garnishee, or to perpetually stay execution on the same. On October 12, the court overruled this motion, but ordered the money due from the garnishee to be paid into the registry of the court, and allowed the defendant, Brooks, ten days in which to file his claim for the same. The defendant accordingly filed his claim for .said money as exempt, and on November 6 the court entered an order, over the objection and exception of the plaintiff, permitting the defendant to intervene and to be heard upon his claim of exemption as to the money collected from the garnishee, and setting the matter down for hearing, the defendant’s right of exemption being denied by plaintiff. On December 7 the court made an additional order setting the matter down for hearing, to which plaintiff also excepted. The plaintiff then demanded a jury trial as to the defendant’s right of exemption, which the court refused, and plaintiff excepted. The matter came on for trial before the court January 2, 1897, the court holding that the burden of proof was on the plaintiff to show that the money was not exempt. The court found that the money collected from the garnishee, and then in the registry of the court, was necessary for the support of defendant and his family, ordered that it be allowed as an exemption, and paid over to defendant. Plaintiff filed a motion for a new trial, which was overruled, and thereupon sued out a writ of error.
There will be but four propositions considered in this case: First. Whether the final judgment against the garnishee was res adjudicata. Second. Did the court below rule correctly in permitting plaintiff to traverse defendant’s affidavit in his intervening petition ? Third. Was plaintiff entitled to trial by jury ? And, fourth, was the finding of the court supported by the evidence ?
, was never intended that these generous provisions should be prostituted to the encouragement of extravagance, and the evasion of just indebtedness by indulgence in luxurious living. The statute exempts the personal earnings of the debtor entitled to its benefits to the amount necessary for the support of his family, and courts in administering the law should take into due consideration the facts and circumstances of each case. An allowance ample for a household of simple and moderate habits would be adequate for one accustomed to abundance^ and it would be not less harsh to deny to the latter means commensurate with their reasonable necessaries than'to fail to accord to the former a liberal proportion of his earnings. In the case at bar it is manifest from the facts in the record that the defendant was earning at the time under consideration about $2,000 per year more than the sum required and necessary for the support of himself and his family. It is a matter of common knowledge that $3,600 is more than ample ■and sufficient to support any average family in comfort and ease. The judgment of the lower court is reversed, and remanded, with costs of this proceeding against the defendant, with directions to the court below to direct the clerk to pay to the plaintiff in error, the New Mexico National Bank, the $400 now in his hands, less the costs of the garnishment proceedings.