Sanders v. Wallace

118 Ala. 418
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedNovember 15, 1897
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 118 Ala. 418 (Sanders v. Wallace) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sanders v. Wallace, 118 Ala. 418 (Ala. 1897).

Opinion

HARALSON, J.

The only question raised by the record in this cause is as stated by counsel, whether or not a AvidoAV, Avho has been provided for by the will of her husband, and who has failed to dissent therefrom within eighteen months, is entitled to dower in lands of which her hus[422]*422band was seized during coverture, and which had been sold under execution against him in his lifetime, and purchased by strangers, to whom the wife and widow of the deceased has made no conveyance or release of dower. The pleas in the cause, filed by each defendant separately, aver in substance, that the 'husband of apjiellant died in Perry county, Alabama, on the 10th of August, 1893; that at the time of his death he was seized and possessed of -property, both real and personal in said county; that before his death, to-wit, on the 16th July, 1890, he made and published his last will and testament, which was duly admitted to probate in said .county, on the 14th of December, 1893; that the said will made provision for the maintenance and support of complainant, and that said complainant never did within eighteen months after the probate of the will of the said Green B. Sanders (the husband of complainant), or at any other time, make any dissent in writing from the will of said Green B. Sanders; but, on the contrary, said complainant accepted the provisions made for her in said will.

The bill shows, that in the year 1862, at a regular term of the circuit court of said county of Perry, a judgment was rendered against complainant’s husband, said Green B. Sanders, for $6,380.05, on which judgment execution issued, and that the lands in which dower is sought and which are described in the bill, having been levied on, were sold for the satisfaction of said judgment by the sheriff, at execution sale, to the plaintiff in .said execution, for $6,924.00, to whom the sheriff executed his conveyances, and. returned the execution satisfied in full; that the purchasers took possession of the lands so purchased by them, and afterwards, in the lifetime of said Green B. Sanders, the defendants, Thos. M. Wallace and Thos. W. Williams, came into possession of different portions of said land, as described in the bill.

Exceptions were filed to the pleas, questioning their sufficiency as a defense, which were overruled, the court holding that each plea was sufficient, if proved, and presented a complete defense to complainant’s bill. To revérse this decree, the appeal is prosecuted.

[423]*423Dower in this State is defined to be, “an estate for life of the widow in certain portions of the following real estate of her husband, to which she has not relinquished her right during the marriage: (1) Of all lands of which the husband ivas seized in fee during the marriage,” etc., etc.

Sections 1910 and 1911 make provision for the allotment by the probate or chancery court, of doAver to a AA’idoAV in lands Avliich have been aliened by the husband, according to tin conditions specified in said sections.

Sections 2354 and 2355 have reference to cases, Avliere a Avoman avIio sundres her husband has a separate estate; the effect of such separate estate on her dower interest and distributive share in her husband’s estate, in diminution of her doAver interest and distributive share therein, and the rule for the ascertainment of the alloAcance to be made her, according to the value of her separate estate. These last sections have no particular reference to the case in hand, since it is not shown that Mrs. Sanders had any separate estate, nor do the first named sections, except as a rule for the assignment of dower, if complainant be decreed to be entitled thereto.

In case of the intestacy of a husband, the foregoing sections apply, as they have been construed, and not of difficult application. But where he dies testate, leaving a widoAV, and making provisions for her in his aau.11, section 1963 is intended to apply, and provides: “The AvidoAV may, in all cases, dissent from the will of her deceased husband, and, in lieu of the provisions made for her by such will, take her dower in the lands, and such portions of the personal estate as she would have been entitled to in case of intestacy.”

The succeeding section, 1964, proAddes: “Such dissent must be made in writing, and deposited within eighteen months from the probate of the bill, with the judge of probate of the county in which the will is probated; and an entry must be made of record, specifying tlie date on which the dissent AA'as made.”

These two sections are the same in substance as sections 1609 and 1610 of the Code of 1852, and are carried [424]*424into each of the Codes subsequent thereto, except that the period of limitation for filing a dissent to the will by a widow, has been changed from 12 to 18 months. These sections do not change and were not intended to ’.change the substantial provisions of the acts of 1806 and 1812 on the same subject, and the same rule as existed before, must be regarded as continued by the subsequent Codes, as Aims held in Adams v. Adams. 39 Ala. 274.

At common laAV a deAfise was presumed to be in addition to doAver unless the reverse clearly appeared in the will; a rule resting on the doctrine, that the right to doAver is a common laAV right, which attached at the time of marriage, and which cannot be impaired except by statute. But, the acts of 1806 and 1812, the same in substance as said sections 1963 and 1964, AArhich latter sections, as stated, are but a continuation of the proAdsions of the former statutes on the subject, reverse the rule of the common laAV, — AAdiich presumes a devise to be in addition to dower, unless the reverse clearly appears; and the rule under said sections as now definitely settled in this court, is that “Avliere the will of a deceased husband makes any proAdsion for his wife by a bequest to her of any part of his personality, or by a devise to her of any part of his realty, and the provision does not plainly appear from the will to 'have been intended in addition to her dower, her failure to signify her dissent from the will, within one year (now eighteen months) after its probate, is a bar to her right of dower.”- — Vaughan v. Vaughan, 30 Ala. 329; Hilliard v. Binford, 10 Ala. 977; Adams v. Adams, 39 Ala. supra; Dean v. Hart, 62 Ala. 308; McGhee v. Stephens, 83 Ala. 466. In the case last cited, it Avas held, that an election is not required unless there be alternatives as to which a choice may be made by the widow, and that section 2292 (now section 1963 of the Code of 1886) contemplates an election,— that some provision shall be made for her in the will, from which she may dissent, and take, in preference, !o Avhat the law would give her. It Avas there said: “The section does not operate to impair or abolish the rule, that a devise or bequest in favor of the wife Avill not bar her right to dower, unless expressly so declared, [425]*425or by necessary implication is intended to be in lieu of dower, in which case the widow, independent of statute, would be put to her election. The statute ivas intended to provide for a speedy and summary election, when any provision is made for her in the will, which does not appear to have been as in addition to dower ; and in such case, her failure to dissent within one year (the period of limitation then fixed) from the probate of the will, bars her right of dower.”

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Bluebook (online)
118 Ala. 418, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sanders-v-wallace-ala-1897.