In re Delucchi

The bankrupt seeks review of the Referee’s Order of October 14, 1959 adjudging void a declaration of homestead filed by the bankrupt and his wife on their residence prior to bankruptcy. The sole basis for the Referee’s Order is his conclusion that the requirement of California Civil Code, § 1263, subd. 4, that a declaration of homestead must contain an estimate of the “actual cash value” of the homesteaded premises was not satisfied by the statement by the bankrupt and his wife in their declaration that “we estimate the actual cash value of our interest in said land and premises to be the sum of Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00)”. The Referee indicated in his Order that he considered that the decision of the Court of Appeals for this circuit in Lynch v. Stotler, 1954, 215 F. 2d 776 , compelled the conclusion that the estimate made by the bankrupt and his wife of the value of their equity in the premises would not suffice as the estimate of the value of the premises required by the statute.

In Lynch, the Court of Appeals held that the failure to insert any amount in a blank left in a printed form of declaration for the insertion of the amount of the estimated value of the…