Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

113 Ark. 134

Jarrett v. Jarrett

Supreme Court of Arkansas

Decided May 18, 1914

Supreme Court of Arkansas · decided 1914-05-18

Meeksj Judge; Under the undisputed evidence the administrator’s sale was a nullity, by the provisions of the Constitution then in force, Const. 1868, art. 12, § 3. It was nearly seven years after his sale before she remarried or acquired any other-homestead. 47 Ark. 445; 48 Ark. 230; 56 Ark. 563. Having by remarriage lost her claim of homestead in the premises, she, nevertheless, still retained her widow’s right of quarantine. Kirby’s Dig., § 2704; 34 Ark. 63.

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently December 1921

4 state decisions

Relies on Bond v. Montgomery · McCloy & Trotter v. Arnett · Brinkley v. Taylor

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

reversed · Decided 1914-05-18

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

McCulloch:, C. J.

¶1This is an action at law insti- . tuted by appellant to recover a tract of land in Randolph County, Arkansas, containing 160 acres, the parties to the action all claiming title from a common source, one IT. C. Jarrett, who died on November 4, 1869, while occupying the land as his homestead. He left several chil-. dren, all of whom-are parties to this action, and a widow, who died in the year 1909. The widow occupied the land with her children until she remarried in the year 1884, when she and the children removed therefrom, but the widow continued to hold possession of the land through her tenants and collected the rents up to the time of her death.

¶2There was an .administrator of the estate of H. C. Jarrett, one Thomas Simington, who sold the lands -under order of the court to pay debts on December 18, 1877, one Thomas Poster being the purchaser at the administrator’s sale, and he subsequently conveyed to one of the defendants in this case.

¶3The defendants plead the bar of the statute of limitation, and also defend under the conveyance to one of them from the purchaser at the administrator’s sale.

¶4The court gave a peremptory instruction in favor of the defendants, and the plaintiff has appealed.

¶5The rights of the parties are to he determined by the homestead laws of the State which existed at the time of the death of H. C. Jarrett in the year 1869. That was under the Constitution of 1868, which provided that the homestead of the owner should, after his death, “be ‘exempt from the payment of his debts, in all eases, during the minority of his children, and also so long as his widow shall remain unmarried, unless she be the owner of a homestead in her own right.” Sec. 5, art. 12, Constitution 1868.

¶6The homestead was not subject to sale for the debts of the decedent until the widow abandoned it by remarriage in the year 1884.

¶7It does not appear from the pleadings or proof that any of the children were minors at that time, and the remarriage of the widow operated as an abandonment of it as a homestead.

¶8Notwithstanding her abandonment of the land as a homestead, she still had the right to occupy the premises through her tenants by virtue' of her quarantine rights under the statute. Kirby’s Digest, § 2704.

¶9Her occupancy was, therefore, not adverse to the heirs, and the statute of limitation did not begin to run against any of them so long as the occupancy of the widow continued. Brinkley v. Taylor, 111 Ark. 305, 163 S. W. 521.

¶10The administrator’s sale to Foster was void for the reason that the probate court was without jurisdiction to order it prior to the abandonment by the widow. McCloy & Trotter v. Arnett, 47 Ark. 445; Bond v. Montgomery, 56 Ark. 563.

¶11It is insisted by counsel for defendant that the allegations of the complaint are not sufficient to show that the property was the homestead of H. C. Jarrett at the time of his death, it being contended that the allegations only state conclusions of law on that subject.

¶12We are of the opinion, however,that the allegations of the complaint are sufficient, inferentially at least, to set forth the homestead right, and that in order to properly raise the defect's in the complaint a motion to make more definite and certain would be required. No such motion was presented, and the evidence establishes specifically all the facts necessary to make the property the homestead of H. C. Jarrett at the time of his death.

¶13We are of the opinion, therefore, that the court erred in giving a peremptory instruction in favor of the defendants. Reversed and remanded for a new trial.

/113/ark/134 · .json · Public domain