The exemption law is contained in the present Constitution, and is as follows: "Section 1. The personal property of any resident of this State, who is not married or the head of a family, in specific articles to be selected by such resident, not exceeding in value the sum of two hundred dollars, in addition to his or her wearing apparel, shall be exempt from seizure on attachment, or sale on execution or other process from any court, issued for the collection of any debts by contract; provided that no property shall be exempt from execution for debts contracted for the purchase-money therefor, while in the hands of the vendee. Sec. 2. The personal property of any resident of this State, who is married or the head of a family, in specific articles to be selected by such resident, not exceeding in value the sum of five hundred dollars, in addition to his or her wearing apparel, and that of his or her family, shall be exempt from seizure on attachment, or sale on execution, or other process from any court, on debt by contract. Sec. 4. The homestead outside any city, town or village, owned and occupied as a residence, shall consist of not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres of land, with the improvements thereon, to be selected by the owner; provided the same shall not exceed in value the sum of twenty-five hundred dollars, and in no event shall the homestead be reduced to less than eighty acres, without regard to value. Sec. 5. The homestead in any city, town or village, owned and occupied as a residence, shall consist of not exceeding one acre of land, with the improvements thereon, to be selected by the owner; provided the same shall not exceed in value the sum of two thousand five hundred dollars, and in no event shall such homestead be reduced to less than one quarter of an acre of land, without regard to value."
CALIFORNIA.
The following property is exempt from execution for any debt, except it be for the purchase price of such property, or a debt secured by mortgage, lien or pledge thereon, to wit: 1st. Chairs, tables, desks and books, to the value of two hundred dollars. 2d. Necessary household, table and kitchen furniture of the debtor, including one sewing machine, stoves, stove pipes and stove furniture, wearing apparel, beds, bedding, bedsteads, hanging pictures, oil paintings and drawings drawn or painted by any member of the family, family portraits and their necessary frames, provisions and fuel actually provided for individual or family use sufficient for three months, and three cows and their sucking calves, four hogs with their sucking pigs, and food for such cows and hogs for one month; also one rifle, one shotgun, one piano. 3d. Farming utensils, or implements of husbandry, not exceeding in value one thousand dollars, of the judgment debtor, also two oxen, or two horses, or two mules and their harness, one cart or buggy, and two wagons, and food for such animals for one month, also seed grain or vegetables reserved or on hand for planting within six months, not exceeding two hundred dollars in value; and seventy-five beehives, and one horse and vehicle belonging to any person who is maimed or crippled, the same being necessary to his business. 4th. Tools or implements of a mechanic or artisan, notary's seal, office furniture and records; instruments and library and necessary office furniture of a surgeon, physician, surveyor or dentist, necessary to the exercise of their profession; books, professional libraries and office furniture of attorneys, judges, ministers of the gospel, editors, and school and music teachers, and all the indexes, abstracts, books, papers, maps and office furniture of searcher of records necessary to be used in his profession, and instruments actually used by music teachers in giving instructions; also typewriters used by owner in making his living, also one bicycle. 5th. A miner's cabin, not exceeding five hundred dollars in value, also his sluices, pipes, tools, etc., necessary for his business, not exceeding five hundred dollars in value, and two horses, mules, or oxen, and their harness, and food for the same for one month, when necessary to be used for any windlass, derrick, car, pump, or hoisting gear; and the miner's claim worked by him, and not exceeding one thousand dollars in value. 6th. Two oxen, horses, or mules and their harness and food for one month, and one cart, wagon, dray, truck, coupe, hack, or carriage for one or two horses, by the use of which a cartman, drayman, truckman, huckster, peddler, hackman, teamster, or other laborer habitually earns his living, and one horse, vehicle, and harness used by physician, surgeon, constable, or minister of the gospel in the legitimate practice of his profession or business, with food for such animal for one month. 7th. One fishing boat and net not exceeding the value of five hundred dollars, the property of any fisherman, by the lawful use of which he earns a livelihood. 8th. Poultry worth not more than seventy-five dollars. 9th. Seamen and seagoing fishermen's wages and earnings not exceeding three hundred dollars. 10th. Earnings for personal service rendered within thirty days of levy, if the defendant swears they are necessary for the use of his family residing in the State, and supported in whole or in part by his labor; but only one-half of such earnings are exempt where the debt is for necessaries of life. 11th. Shares in homestead associations, not exceeding in value one thousand dollars, if the debtor has not a homestead selected. 12th. Nautical instruments and wearing apparel of any master, officer, or seamen of any vessel. 13th. All moneys, benefits, etc., accruing or growing out of any life insurance, if the annual premiums paid do not exceed five hundred dollars; if they exceed that sum, a like exemption exists, which shall bear the same proportion to the money, immunities, etc., so accruing or growing out of such insurance that five hundred dollars bears to the whole annual premiums paid. 14th. All fire-engines, etc. 15th. All firearms, etc., required by law to be kept by any person, and one gun selected by the debtor. 17th. All material not exceeding one thousand dollars purchased in good faith for use in or about to be applied in good faith to the construction, alteration, or repair of any building, mining claim, or other improvement entered upon a judgment recovered, for its price or foreclosure of a mortgage thereon. 18th. All machinery, etc., necessary for constructing surface or artesian wells to the value of one thousand dollars. 19th. Shares of stock in any building and loan association to one thousand dollars. 20th. Moneys derived from United States pension.
COLORADO.
Every householder, being the head of a family, is entitled to a homestead of the value of two thousand dollars exempt from execution and attachment while such homestead is occupied by the owner or his or her family. Entry of homestead is made by writing the word "homestead" on the margin of the recorded title thereof, attested by the recorder with date of entry. There is also exempt from execution and attachment the necessary wearing apparel of every person, and the following property of a person being the head of a family: Family pictures, school-books, and library, a seat or pew in any house of public worship, the sites of burial for the dead, all wearing apparel of the debtor and his family, all beds, bedsteads, and bedding, kept and used for the debtor and his family, all stoves and appendages kept for the use of the debtor or his family, all cooking utensils, and all the household furniture not above enumerated not exceeding one hundred dollars in value, the provisions for the debtor and his family necessary for six months, and fuel necessary for six months. The tools and implements or stock in trade of any mechanic, miner, or other person not exceeding two hundred dollars in value, the library and implements of any professional man not exceeding three hundred dollars in value, one bicycle, one sewing-machine, working animals of any person to the value of two hundred dollars, one cow and calf, ten sheep, and food for same for six months, one farm wagon, cart or dray, one plow, one harrow, and other farming implements, including harness and tackle for team not exceeding fifty dollars in value. If the head of the family dies the family is entitled to the exemption. There is also exemption from levy on execution, attachment, or garnishment sixty per cent. of the amount, due at the time of levy, of wages or earnings of the head of the family or his wife when such family resides in the State and is dependent in whole or in part, upon such earnings, and all wages are exempt when they do not exceed five dollars per week.
Pension money received from the United States is exempt from all legal process, whether in the actual possession of the pensioner, deposited or loaned, and whether the pensioner be the head of a family or not. This exemption runs to the pensioner's wife and children, or either of them, in case of his death or absconding.
CONNECTICUT.
The following property shall be exempted and not liable to be taken by warrant or execution, namely: of the property of any person, his necessary apparel and bedding, and household furniture necessary for supporting life, arms, militia equipments, uniforms, or musical instruments owned by any member of the militia for military purposes, any pension moneys received from the United States while in the hands of the pensioner, implements of the debtor's trade, his library not exceeding five hundred dollars in value, one cow not exceeding one hundred and fifty dollars in value, any number of sheep not exceeding ten nor exceeding in all one hundred and fifty dollars in value, two swine and two hundred pounds of pork, and poultry not exceeding twenty-five dollars in value; of the property of any one person having a wife or family, twenty-five bushels of charcoal, two tons of other coal, two hundred pounds of wheat flour, two cord of wood, two tons of hay, two hundred pounds each of beef and fish, five bushels each of potatoes and turnips, ten bushels each of Indian corn and rye, and the meal or flour manufactured therefrom, twenty pounds each of wool and flax, or the yarn or cloth made therefrom; the horse of any practicing physician or surgeon of a value not exceeding two hundred dollars, and his saddle, bridle, harness, buggy, and bicycle; one boat owned by one person and used by him in the business of planting or taking oyster or clams, or taking shad, together with the sails, tackle, rigging and implements used in said business not exceeding in value two hundred dollars; one sewing-machine, being the property of any one person using it or having a family; one pew, being the property of any person having a family, who ordinarily occupy it; and lots in any burying ground appropriated by its proprietors for the burial of any person or family. So much of any debt which has accrued by reason of the personal services of the debtor as shall not exceed twenty-five dollars, including wages due for the personal services of any minor child under the age of twenty-one years, shall be exempted and not liable to be taken by foreign attachment or execution.
Any person owning and actually occupying any dwelling and real estate can file for record, in same manner as a deed, a declaration that he occupies and intends to occupy said dwelling and real estate as a homestead, and from the filing such declaration said property, to the value of one thousand dollars, shall be exempt from execution so long as actually occupied by the owner as a dwelling, and only the excess in value above one thousand dollars can be set off. (Gen. Stat. 1902 Sec. 4065, 4066.)
Money due on insurance losses for exempt property, whether real or personal, are also exempt.