Vogel v. Veneman

As amended January 11, 2002. Appeals from the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas Norwin H. Vogel and Elrine E. Vogel (the ""Vogels"") appeal the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the United States of America, acting by and through Ann Veneman, on behalf of the Farm Service Agency (FSA), declaring the FSA's lien on the Vogels' property to be valid. The Vogels raise two issues on appeal: (1) the district court's calculation of the total lien amount violates the common law prohibition on lien spreading; and (2) the district court's application of payments made by the Vogels was in error, because the payments should have been first allocated to the portion of the loan secured by the homestead, rather than the unsecured portion. We reject both arguments.