Exemptions From Forced Sale

ABSTRACT OF STATE LAWS. Showing Property Exempt from Attachment, or Levy and Sale on Execution.

ALABAMA.-Home worth $2,000, and Personal Property $1.000. - The exempted home may consist of a house and lot in an incorporated town, village or city, or of 160 acres of land, with buildings, in the country, either not exceeding $2,000 in value. The exempted personal property comprises wages for labor or service, $25 per month, burial-places, pews in churches, household furniture, all necessary and proper wearing-apparel for the whole family, family portraits, books used in the family, etc., worth not more than $1,000.

ARIZONA. - Home worth $5,000, and Personal Property $600. - The homestead may include a quantity of land and a dwelling-house and its appurtenances, with water-right sufficient to irrigate the land; also, stoves in use in dwellings, church pews, burial-places of families, all arms and accoutrements kept tor use, all wearing-apparel of families, all library and school-books to the value of $150, family pictures; ten sheep or goats owned by a householder, with their fleeces, and the yarn or cloth made from them; two cows, five swine, and enough provisions for the household to last six months; all household goods, furniture and utensils not exceeding in value $600; the tools, implements, materials, animals, etc., necessary to carry on any trade, profession or business, not exceeding in value $600; ne sewing-machine and one musical instrument, with hay, grain and other food for exempted animals sufficient for three months.

ARKANSAS.-Home $2,500, and Personal Property $500. - The homestead in towns and cities may comprise one acre of land; in the country, 160 acres; but if the homestead be no more than eighty acres in the country, or one-quarter of an acre in a town or city, its value is unlimited. The personal property of an unmarried man exempted from execution, besides his necessary wearing apparel, must not exceed in value $200, nor, if married, $500, to be selected by the owners.

CALIFORNIA. -Home $5,000, and Personal Property. - An unmarried person's homestead, consisting of an indefinite quantity of land and a dwelling-house thereon, is limited to $1,000; a married person's to $5,000 in value. The other exemptions are chairs, tables, desks and books, to the value of $200; necessary household, table and kitchen furniture, including one sewing-machine, stoves, stove-pipe and stove furniture; wearing apparel, beds, bedding and bedsteads, hanging pictures, oil paintings and drawings, drawn or painted by a member of the family; family portraits in their frames; provisions sufficient for three months; farming utensils or implements of husbandry; also two oxen, or two horses, or two mules, and their harness, one cart or wagon, and food for such animals, etc., for one month; all seed, grain or vegetables, actually provided for planting or sowing within the ensuing six months, not exceeding $200 in value; seventy-five beehives; one horse and vehicle of a maimed and crippled person when necessary in his business; tools of a mechanic or artisan necessary to his trade; notarial seal, records and office furniture of a notary; instruments and chest of a surgeon, physician, surveyor, dentist, necessary to their profession, with their scientific or professional libraries and office furniture; the law professional libraries and office furniture of attorneys and judges, and libraries of ministers of the gospel; the cabin or dwelling of a miner not exceeding $500 in value; also his sluices, pipes, hose, windlass, derricks, cars, pumps, tools, implements, and appliances necessary for mining operations, not exceeding $500 in value; a miner's claim worked by him, not exceeding $1,000 in value, and two horses, oxen or mules, and harness, and food of horses, etc., for one month, when necessary to be used in any windlass, derrick, car, pump or hoisting gear, two oxen, horses, or mules, with harness, and hack, carriage, cart, etc., by which a cartman, drayman, peddler, teamster, etc., earns his living, and the horse, vehicle, and harness of a physician or minister of the gospel, with food for one month; three cows with their sucking calves, and four hogs with their sucking pigs; poultry, not exceeding $25 in value; earnings of debtor for services rendered within thirty days before levy, necessary for the use of his family residing in the State, supported by his labor; shares in a homestead corporation not exceeding $1,000 in value, when the holder does not own a homestead; all benefits of life insurance whose annual premiums do not exceed $500; fire-engines, etc., of fire companies; arms and accoutrements required to be kept by law; court-houses, jails, and buildings, and lots, cemeteries, and certain other public property.

COLORADO.-Home worth $2,000, and Personal Property. - There is exempted a homestead worth not to exceed $2,000, and to the head of a family owning and occupying the same, there are exempted various articles of personal property, as follows: Household furniture $100; provisions for the family six months; tools, implements or stock-in-trade $200; library and implements of any professional $300; working animals worth $200; one cow and calf, ten sheep, cattle-feed for six months; farm wagon, cart or dray, plow, harrow, and $50 worth of other farming implements.

CONNECTICUT. - No Home exempted. Personal Property of the following value: Necessary apparel and bedding, and household furniture necessary for supporting life; militia arms, uniforms, equipments and musical instruments; implements of the debtor's trade; library worth $500; one cow and ten sheep (the latter not exceeding in value $150); a liberal variety and specified amounts of household provisions, fuel, etc.; the horse, saddle, bridle, buggy and harness, of value not more than $200, belonging to any practicing surgeon or physician; one sewing-machine in use; one church pew in use, and one boat used in fishing, with its necessary tackle, sails and implements, worth not more, in all, than $200, and the family burial-place.