Bixler v. Kennedy
Bixler v. Kennedy
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
A debtor will be refused the right to claim the exemption of $300.00 provided by law where he denies the ownership of that which he cannot hide, or embarrasses the officer of the law in the execution of his legal duty, or attempts to conceal or fraudulently sell his property so that it may be taken out of the reach of creditors: Gilleland v. Rhoads, 34 Pa. 187; Kreider’s Est., 135 Pa. 578; Riley v. Ogden, 185 Pa. 506; Emerson v. Smith, 51 Pa. 90. The rule is founded in sound morality and “is agreeable to the spirit and intention of the exemption law. It was an enactment for the honest poor, not for the roguish: Strouse’s Executor v. Becker, 38 Pa. 190. The exemption may be claimed in an attachment execution: Strouse’s Executor v. Becker, 44 Pa. 206. Fraud is not a bar- to the claim for exemption where it is independent of the transaction in which the levy was made, but where it exists in the very transaction it is a positive bar and is not to be used merely in mitigation of damages: Emerson v. Smith, supra. The court below held: “The sale by the defendant of his goods in bulk without notice to the plaintiff who was a. creditor at the time of the sale, was fraudulent as against the plaintiff by the Act of March 28, 1905.” The acts which will de
The judgment is reversed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.