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26 Tex. 526

Mackey v. Wallace

Texas Supreme Court

Decided July 1, 1863

Texas Supreme Court · decided 1863-07-01

Error from Colorado. Tried below before the Hon. James H. Bell, Robert W. Martin filed a petition in the District Court of Colorado county, alleging that, on the 6tb day of December, 1856, be obtained a judgment before a justice of the peace of Colorado county for the sum of eighty-nine dollars and thirty-three cents against W. H. Wallace; that the said Wallace has no property subject to execution except a small portion of the tract of land comprising his homestead, which…

Cited by 1 later decisions — most recently August 1985

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1863-07-01

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Wheeler, C. J.

¶1It appears to have been held in some of the States, on statutes similar to our own, that the lien created by a judgment does not attach to land purchased by the judgment debtor after the date of the judgment. (Calhoun v. Snider, 6 Binn, 135; 25 Miss., 484; 1 Green, Iowa R., 275.)

¶2But it is unnecessary to decide that question in the present case. If it be conceded that Mackey’s judgment was a lien on the land, his petition shows no sufficient ground for asking the interposition of the equity powers of the court in- his behalf. If, indeed, such a proceeding as the present can be maintained by a creditor to Subject the excess of land in a homestead tract in any case, which is doubtful, it must be where the creditor cannot obtain satisfaction of his judgment in the ordinary way; and it must be in subordination to the right of the debtor to point out property and to possess the homestead of his own selection. It is not averred that the debtor has not other property liable to be taken in execution in satisfaction of the debt. It may be that he has, though executions have been returned milla bona. The averment of such returns is not an allegation that the creditor has not property subject to execution. The returns might be good evidence in supnort -of such an allegation. It was incumbent on the creditor to negative, by averment, the existence of property before he could invoke the equitable powers of the court in an extraordinary proceeding of this nature.

¶3It would seem, moreover, that it is the right of the debtor to designate the land included in his homestead exemption, subject only to the qualification that it must include his improvements. At all events, he has the right to point out property to satisfy the *530creditor’s execution; and it is not perceived that any olie could question his right to point out the excess of land in the homestead tract by designated boundaries, subject to the qualification just mentioned. If he could dispose of it at private sale, and reserve such portion as a homestead as he saw proper, no reasdn is perceived why he should not have the right to point it out to the agent appointed by the law to sell it for him. It does not appear that any opportunity had been afforded him to point out this excess f and in this respect, also, we think the petition is insufficient.

¶4We are of opinion that there is no error in the judgment, and it is affirmed.

¶5Judgment affirmed.

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