Threat v. Moody

87 Tenn. 143
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 28, 1888
StatusPublished

This text of 87 Tenn. 143 (Threat v. Moody) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Threat v. Moody, 87 Tenn. 143 (Tenn. 1888).

Opinion

Folkes J.

This case was tried in the court below on bill and answer.

[144]*144The question presented for our determination is one of homestead, and arises upon the following-state of facts:

Jonathan Moody died intestate at' his home in Eentress County in 1863, residing upon and the owner of the land described in the bill. He left surviving him his widow, Lottie, now the wife of defendant Elijah 'Waters, and two children, then minors, both of whom were adults when this hill was filed. Collier Moody, one of the children, has sold and conveyed his interest in his father’s estate to complainant, who files his hill against the widow and her present husband and against the other, child of Jonathan Moody, Nancy Moody, seeking a partition of the lands. The widow has been in possession of and resided upon said land since the death of her husband, with the two children as members of her family, until their majority, the daughter still living with her and her present husband.

The widow insists that she is entitled to have a homestead of the value of one thousand dollars, as fixed by the Act of HiTO, set apart to her, and if mistaken in this, then to a five hundred dollar homestead, under Code of 1858, and to have dower allotted.

Complainant admits that she is entitled to dower, but denies her right to homestead.

The Chancellor allowed the claim for dower, but refused homestead, and the case is here on the appeal of the widow and her present husband.

[145]*145There is no error in the decree complained of.

The homestead to which the widow and children are entitled is governed by the law in force at the time of the husband’s, or father’s, death.

Both under the Code of 1858 and the acts subsequent thereto the homestead exemption is to the housekeeper or the head of the family, and it is to his rights that the widow and children succeed.

Under the Code of 1858, which was in force at the time of the death of Jonathan Moody, this homestead exemption was not to exceed in value five hundred dollars, and to be entitled to this such “ housekeeper or head of a family ” was to have recorded in the register’s office of the county where the land lay a declaration of his intention to claim such exemption.

By the same act “the homestead exempt in the hands of a husband [the italics are ours] shall, upon his death, go to his widow during her natural life or widowhood; upon the death or marriage of the widow, to go to the minor children of the deceased husband.” So that it is clear that if the widow in this case had applied for homestead prior to the Act of 1870, which repealed the provisions of the Code of 1858, above referred to (as also the Act of 1867-8, Chapter 85, amendatory thereof), she would have been repelled, because her husband was not himself entitled to such exemption by reason of his failure to make and register the declaration of intention; and if the application had [146]*146been made after her marriage with her co-defendant, Elijah, she would have been repelled for that reason, even had there been a declaration of intention; or rather she would, by such marriage, have lost the right had she otherwise possessed it, and, if existing, it would, as we have seen, passed to the children of the first marriage.

For the widow counsel insist that the registration of the declaration of intention was for the benefit of creditors merely, so as to give them notice of their debtor’s intention, and does not apply to the right of homestead as between the widow and the children; and that the homestead right having survived to the .wife, the provision forfeiting the right by re-marriage having been repealed, the wife is now entitled to assert her rights, and that the homestead acquired under the Act of 1868 was entitled to the benefit of the extensions contained in the Acts of 1870 and 1879.

These contentions all assume, instead of establishing, the question which lies at the root of the controversy. They assume the “right of the wife to homestead,” and then address themselves to the effect of the acts subsequent to the Code of 1858, repealing the forfeiture clause for re-marriage and repealing the clause as to declaration of intention and enlarging the value to one thousand dollars, apparently losing sight of the fact that the wife or widow has no homestead rights to be repealed or enlarged, except such as her husband enjoyed [147]*147at the time of his death, and which, by his death, passed to her.

He having no homestead rights at the time of his death, under the law as it then existed, she can have none in his lands.

The distinction between this case and the cases of Vincent v. Vincent, 1 Heis., 343-4, and Merriman v. Lacefield, 4 Heis., 209, relied on by counsel for the widow, is obvious.

These cases adjudge that, under the provisions of our statute, § 2288, T. & S. Code, which enacts that “property exempt by law from execution shall, on the death of the husband, be exempt from execution in the hands of and be vested in the widow,” etc. The words “property exempt by law from execution” are not restricted to the specific articles enumerated in the Code, but embrace all property which may thereafter be exempted by legislative enactment.

This is merely the announcement of the familiar rule of construction that “a remedial statute shall be extended to later provisions by subsequent statutes.”

The effect of which was to give to the widow not only the articles enumerated in the statute as exempt at the time of the passage of the act entitling her to her husband’s exemptions at the time of his death, but to give her such additional articles as had, by subsequent legislation, been exempted to her husband.

HOMESTEAD. I. STATUTES. i. Code oe 1858, ?¿% 2114-2123. Under Code of 1858, “each housekeeper or head of a family in this State ” was allowed a homestead worth five hundred dollars out of real estate occupied by him and including mansion and out-houses, provided he had registered a declaration of his intention to claim it. After its assignment the husband could not alien the homestead without the wife’s joinder in his deed; and upon his death it passed to his widow “during life or widowhood,” then to his minor children; and upon failure of both, it went first to pay the husband’s debts, then the wife’s, and then to the husband’s heirs.

[148]*148But there, as here, her rights are dependent upon what were her husband’s exemption rights under the statute of which she seeks to avail herself.

We hold, therefore, that the rights of the widow and children concerning homestead are determined by the law in force at the time of the death of the husband or father. See Thompson on Homestead, § 548.

The decree of the Chancellor is affirmed and cause remanded for the allotment of dower, which must include the mansion house, etc., but the value of the improvements is not to be regarded in estimating the quantity of land to be assigned her unless the improvements cannot be assigned without manifest injustice to the children, etc., as provided in §§ 3248, 3249, M. & V’s Code, and construed in 1 Heisk., 383, and 5 Bax., 640.

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Bluebook (online)
87 Tenn. 143, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/threat-v-moody-tenn-1888.