32 Kan. 504 | Kan. | 1884
The opinion of the court was delivered by
On November 12, 1883, the Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut, brought an action in the district court of Bourbon county, on two promissory notes against Andrew G. Bitter, to recover the sum of $520, and at the same time filed an affidavit for an order of attachment, alleging as a ground therefor that the
There is.really only one question in this case, and that is, whether the defendant was a non-resident of the state of Kansas or not at the time when the order of attachment was issued. If he was a non-resident at that time, then the decision of the court below is correct; but if he was a. resident of the state of Kansas .at that time, then the decision is erroneous, and the defendant’s motion to dissolve the attachment should be sustained. It is admitted that in May, 1883, the defendant was a resident of the state of Kansas. He resided upon the attached property, and occupied the same as his homestead.
Is this decision erroneous? Upon the evidence, we cannot say that it is. Just before the defendant left Kansas, in May, 1883, he sold nearly all his household goods, farming utensils, and other personal property;' he offered his farm for sale, and placed it in the hands of land agents for that purpose; rented his farm; told many persons that he was going west to hunt another home; did go west to Colorado; and did not return to his farm until after the attachment was levied upon it; and then admitted that when he left Kansas he did not expect to return to make it' his home. Some of these matters the defendant disputes, but we think the preponderance of the evidence proves them, and the court below evidently so found; and we are unable to say that the court below erred in its findings. Many of the defendant’s statements before he left Kansas and after his return, as proved by the other witnesses, tended to show that he left Kansas in May, 1883, intending' never again to make Kansas his home.