In my last installments about understanding Minnesota law to protect your property (Part 5), I discussed tools of the trade and farm machine. In those cases, I was able to find case law to help describe those laws as viewed by a court. Here, the case law is sparse, so I’m going to keep it brief, but still speak on the subject if when you are allowed to exempt property in Minnesota.
Under Minn. Stat. § 550.37, subd. 8, you are allowed to exempt property if your interest in that property consists of “[t]he library and philosophical and chemical or other apparatus belonging to, and used for the instruction of youth in, any university, college, seminary of learning, or school which is indiscriminately open to the public.” In other words, if you have property which belongs to and is used to teach students at any level of education, then it’s protected.
Exempting Property Claims in Minnesota
Under Minn. Stat. § 550.37, subd. 9, you are allowed to exempt property claims. Specifically, the law allows you to exempt, “[a]ll money arising from any claim on account of the destruction or, or damage to, exempt property.” So, for example, let’s say a major hail storm occurred last summer and your insurance company finally gave you a check for $10,000 to fix the roof of your house. In this case, that $10,000 would be exempted, or in other words, protected, from the bankruptcy estate. However, if this occurs, I would advise you to either keep that physical check before filing your case, or create a separate account just for that amount. You do not want to co-mingle that $10,000 with the rest of your funds, since it would be more difficult to disseminate what amount is your personal funds and what amount came from that $10,000.
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