Pfunder v. Goodwin

CONREY, P. J.

The judgment, from which defendants appeal, covers eighty per cent of the value ($500) of a tractor, which was sold by the sheriff in execution of a judgment against the respondent’s husband.

It is conceded that the tractor as originally purchased by respondent’s husband was community property of the husband and wife. It was found by the court that said tractor had been purchased under a sales contract, in the name of the husband, and that eighty per cent of said purchase price was paid by the plaintiff with her separate earnings. Said earnings were deposited in a joint bank account of the plaintiff and her husband, and that account was checked upon in making the payments for the tractor. The remaining twenty per cent of the purchase price “was paid out of

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community funds belonging to plaintiff and her husband.” The court found, also, that until seized by the sheriff the tractor had remained “in joint possession” of the plaintiff and her husband.

Section 168 of the Civil Code says: “The earnings of the wife are not liable for the debts of the husband.” In this case the wife had earned certain money by her personal industry. That money went into the joint bank account, and was checked out by the husband to pay for the tractor. How far may funds, thus obtained and invested, be pursued and defended by the wife as against creditors of the husband who have given him credit in the purchase by him of community property? Suppose the tractor had been sold by the husband, and suppose the proceeds had been re-invested in other merchandise, or in real property. May the wife, at any time thereafter, hold such property as against creditors of the husband (the seeming owner of the property) by proving that the original investment, years before, was made with funds earned by her?

Reasonable justice would appear to require that there be some limit to the assertion of such claims, if the “community property” laws under which we live are to continue in force.

The wife’s right to hold exempt from execution for her husband’s debts moneys classed as “earnings of the wife” is within the class of rights which “may be waived by any party entitled thereto, unless such waiver would be against public policy.” (Civ. Code, sec. 3268.) Section 168 of the Civil Code is a declaration of public policy in relation to “the earnings of the wife.” But it would seem that such public policy is adequately satisfied' when the wife, having first received such earnings, voluntarily waives further right of exemption by allowing the money to be invested in other community property held and possessed in the name of her husband. We think that the terms of said section 168, and the practical effect of such further investment of money with the wife’s consent, alike mark the limit of the exemption. ‘ ‘ Section 168 does not provide that the earnings of the wife are