Peter M. Elliott, Trustee in Bankruptcy of Kenneth P. Ostman and Douglas L. Ostman, Bankrupts v. Kenneth P. Ostman and Douglas L. Ostman

Appellant, the Trustee of two bankrupt estates, questions the correctness of the District Court’s affirmance of an Order of the Referee in Bankruptcy. The Order allowed the claimed homestead exemptions of the bankrupts against the Trustee’s contention that the bankrupts’ homestead declarations were fatally deficient under California law.

Subdivision 4 of Section 1263 of the California Civil Code, read with Section 1267 of the same Code, provides that a declaration of homestead “must” contain an estimate of the “actual cash value” of the premises for which the exemption is claimed.

Here, each of the bankrupts filed a declaration of homestead on the same day, and twenty-five days later, each filed his bankruptcy schedule. The homestead declaration of one estimated the cash value of his premises at $2,500.00, whereas, in his bankruptcy schedule, it was recited that the premises had a value of $19,137.27 with recorded encumbrances of $16,637.27. The declaration of the other specified $4,000.00 as the cash value of his premises, while his bankruptcy schedule fixed the value at $19,-000.00 and mentioned recorded encumbrances of $15,000.00.

It is clear that both bankrupts, in the…