Melvin J. Towers v. James A. Curry, Trustee, Etc.

The Bankrupt appeals from an Order of the District Court, approving and confirming an order of the Referee determining as exempt property under Sec. 6 of the Bankruptcy Act ( 11 U.S.C.A. § 24 ), a homestead of the value of $3000. Appellant asserts

(1) that an amended declaration of homestead entitles him to the exemption of a head of a family, rather than that of a single man, as claimed in his original declaration of homestead, and

(2) that he is entitled to the larger homestead exemptions granted by the Legislature of the State of California, by amendment of California Civil Code, Section 1260, effective September 9,1953. On December 22, 1953, appellant filed his original declaration as a single man. Without abandoning this declaration, either expressly or through operation of law, the bankrupt, on June 13, 1954, purported to file an “amended declaration of homestead” as head of a family.

Once an exemption of homestead is created under California law, it can be terminated only in certain specified ways. By statute it can be granted or abandoned (Cal.Civil Code, § 1243), and under decisional law, it can be terminated by operation of law, or judicial decree, or possibly by…