Joseph Esten v. Crules R. Cheek, Trustee in Bankruptcy of the Estate of Joseph Esten, Bankrupt

Joseph Esten, appellant herein, filed his petition in bankruptcy on September 19, 1955, and was adjudged a bankrupt on said date. In Schedule B-4 of his Petition in Bankruptcy Esten listed an equity of $10,500 in real property, with improvements thereon, located at 1349 South Mansfield Street, Los Angeles, California. In Schedule B-5 of said petition Esten claimed a homestead exemption in said real property under the provisions of Sections 1260 to 1265, inclusive of the West’s Ann.Civil Code of California. On April 24, 1956, the Trustee in Bankruptcy, appellee herein, filed his report of exempt property, in which the Trustee refused to set aside as exempt the real property located at 1349-1351 South Mansfield Avenue, Los Angeles, California, stating as the ground for such refusal that no valid declaration of homestead had been recorded with the- County Recorder of Los Angeles County.

The evidence disclosed that on April 15, 1955, there was filed with the County Recorder of said county a Declaration of Homestead, executed by Anna Esten, the wife of the bankrupt, and that in said Declaration of Homestead the real property claimed by the bankrupt as exempt was described as “Lot 10k,…