Title 44, Chapter 13, Section 6
( 44-13-6)
It shall be the duty of any person who shall claim the benefit of
the exemption allowed in this article to act in perfect good faith.
As it is in the power of the debtor claiming an exemption of
personal property to conceal part of his property or money and to
claim the balance as exempt, it shall be the duty of the debtor,
when he shall take steps in the probate court to have an exemption
of personal property set off to him, to make a full and fair
disclosure of all the personal property, including money, stocks,
and bonds, which he may possess at the time. All such money or
property which he may hold in excess of the exemption shall be
subject to levy and sale for the payment of his just debts. If the
money or other personal property which the debtor possesses at the
time of his application or at the time he obtains the order of court
setting off exempt property shall be fraudulently concealed or shall
not be delivered up for the benefit of his creditors, no exemption
shall be made in his favor until it shall be so delivered up. All
orders of the court obtained by the fraudulent concealment of
property or obtained while the debtor had personal property, money,
stocks, or bonds which he kept out of the reach of the levying
officer or did not in good faith deliver up for the benefit of his
creditors shall be null and void and of no effect. In such event,
the property set off to the debtor by such order or judgment shall
be subject to levy and sale as if no such order or judgment had been
rendered; and all property in which the debtor shall have invested
the money, stocks, bonds, or personal property fraudulently
concealed by him or kept out of the reach of his creditors shall be
subject to levy and sale and liable to be sold for the payment of
any debt then in existence. The debtor who is guilty of willful
fraud in the concealment of part of his property which he possessed
when he sought the benefit of the exemption shall on account of his
fraud lose the benefit of the exemption, and his property shall be
subject to the payment of all just debts which he owed at the time
such fraud was committed; but the property, when once set off to him
by order of the court, shall be exempt as against all debts
contracted after that time. |