《楊清泉律師專欄》Can truck qualify as homestead if you live in it?(PART II)

《楊清泉律師專欄》CAN TRUCK QUALIFY AS HOMESTEAD IF YOU LIVE IN IT?(PART I)

The judge in this case found no published ruling on whether a truck could qualify as a mobile home. While there were many analogous cases from other states, they could be distinguished. For instance, a lobster farmer in Maine was able to exempt the boat where he lived as his homestead. A homeless person in Manhattan was able to exempt the cardboard box he lived in as his homestead, and Tarzan’s grandson was able to exempt the tree-house he lived in as his homestead. The court noted that New York law provides a separate and smaller exemption for motor vehicles, but that did not mean the truck could not qualify as a mobile home because mobile home are defined as motor vehicles under New York law. Then the court found that when ‘mobile home’ was added to the state’s homestead exemption, the intention was to protect the typical mobile home. In other words, mobile homes that don’t have wheels and don’t need gas are clearly protected as homesteads in New York. But what about mobile homes that are actually trucks with wheels? What if the wheels were removed, would the absence of wheels convert the truck into a mobile home? These were the nerve wracking issues that the court was confronted with. I mean, even King Solomon who decided to split the baby in half because it was claimed by two mothers, would have had to take a bottle of Tylenol to come out with a fair decision. Hence, the court decided to call Steven Spielberg, the authority on truck transformers. Unfortunately, Mr. Spielberg was in Fiji on an extended vacation with an extra-terrestrial and so the judge had to make a decision by himself.

“Remove the tires as pre-bankruptcy planning and the result is an exempt ‘mobile home’,” the court said. Finding that the allowance of the homestead exemption should not turn on such a trivial maneuver, the court ruled debtor’s truck qualified as his home.

Lawrence Bautista Yang is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and has been in law practice for thirty years. He specializes in bankruptcy, business and civil litigation and has handled more than four thousand successful bankruptcy cases in California. He speaks Mandarin and Fujien and looks forward to discussing your case with you personally. Please call (626) 284-1142 for an appointment at 1000 S Fremont Ave Bldg A-1 Suite 1125 Unit 58 Alhambra, CA 91803.