Mayhugh v. Coon (1975)

Citation: 460 Pa. 128, 331 A.2d 452 · Court: Supreme Court of Pennsylvania (opinion by Nix, J.) · Decided: January 27, 1975 · Appeal from: Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas (equity)

Source note (2026-10-18):

• Links on this page to https://static.case.law/pa/460/cases/0128-01.json are an (unofficial Caselaw Access Project copy, retrieved before 2026-10-18; host disallows automated access); no official or otherwise permitted full-text copy was located on 2026-10-18.

Text retrieved from the Caselaw Access Project’s static copy, an unofficial reproduction of the reported opinion.

Facts

Debtors brought a class action in equity to enjoin the Prothonotary and Sheriff of Allegheny County from issuing and executing writs of execution noting that the debtor’s exemption under the Act of April 9, 1849 (12 P.S. § 2161) — the predecessor of today’s USD 300 general exemption — had been waived. Lenders intervened as defendants. The chancellor enjoined the practice only where the complaint did not allege a waiver; debtors whose complaints did allege waiver appealed.

Holding

Reversed as to those appellants: a debtor “may not, either expressly or by implication, waive the right of exemption” provided by the 1849 Act. Prior Pennsylvania decisions holding the exemption waivable (beginning with Case v. Dunmore, 23 Pa. 93 (1854)) were overruled.

Reasoning

The court reviewed the history of exemption statutes as a humane departure from the common-law rule that all of a debtor’s property was liable to execution, noted repeated expressions of regret in its own nineteenth-century cases about allowing waiver, and joined the many jurisdictions that refuse to enforce waiver-of-exemption clauses, which had become routine in confessed-judgment installment paper.

Practical impact

At a Pennsylvania sheriff’s sale of personal property, the debtor’s statutory exemption is set aside in kind or in cash from the proceeds even if the debtor signed a waiver or never claimed it (Pa.R.C.P. 3123(a)–(c); 42 Pa.C.S. § 8123). Buyers should expect the sheriff to hold back exempt property or proceeds; debtors cannot lose the exemption by contract.

Good-law status

The complete opinion was independently retrieved again on 2026-10-17. Current Rule 3123 separately preserves nonwaiver and cites this decision. The full official opinion in Commonwealth v. Small, 238 A.3d 1267 (Pa. 2020) cites Mayhugh at page 26 for correcting erroneous precedent, not for every current execution-exemption application. These are limited positive references; complete later treatment remains needs_verification.

Applies in →

pennsylvania · Topic: personal-property-execution-sales-by-state

Legal information, not legal advice. Verify current law and later treatment before relying on this decision.