Kansas Appeals Court Jams Judgment Creditors In Failed Attempt To Circumvent State Homestead Law

In Kansas, The Kansas City Star reported last month:

• From the time it entered the union in 1861, Kansas has had a constitutionally enshrined homestead exemption, barring [judgment] creditors from forcing the sale of a family’s home. That means that court judgments, which typically attach to real estate, don’t attach to the family homestead. That’s been the law since 1869, when the Kansas [Supreme Court] ruled to that effect in a case called Morris v. Ward.

• Two judgment creditors recently tried to circumvent that principle of Kansas law. They argued that the homestead exemption only prevented them from enforcing their judgment liens as long as the property remained a homestead or until the mortgage holder instituted foreclosure proceedings against the property.

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• The trial court disagreed, citing the homestead exemption, [...] and last [month] the Kansas Court of Appeals ruled that the 139-year-old Morris case remains good law in Kansas.

For more, see Kansas homes remain safe from court judgments (if link expires, try here or try here).

For last month's decision of the Kansas Court of Appeals, see Deutsche Bank Nat'l Trust Co. V. Rooney, et al. (Kansas Court of Appeals; June 20, 2008).

For a recent failed attempt by a judgment creditor to circumvent the Florida Homestead law, see Homestead Waiver Declared Invalid; Big Win For Florida Homeowners As State Exemption From Forced Sale Dodges Bullet.