Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

2 Posey 274

Ayers v. Shackey

Texas Commission of Appeals

Decided July 1, 1880

Texas Commission of Appeals · decided 1880-07-01

Opinion by Delaney, J. Statement. — There is but one question in this case: whether or not appellees abandoned the homestead. The facts, in substance, are these: Appellees acquired the property as their homestead in 1870, and lived upon it until some time in 1876. It consisted of a part of a city lot, fronting sixty feet on one street and ninety feet on another.

Decided 1880-07-01

¶1Opinion.— Held, these propositions are indisputable, yet the evidence of abandonment “must be undeniably clear, and beyond almost the shadow, at least of all reasonable ground, of dispute.” 20 Tex., 96. If the head of the family, with the consent of his wife, given in any manner prescribed by law, shall permanently devote a part of the residence to purposes other than those of a home, the part so appropriated and used would lose its exemption.

¶2The court erroneously charged the jury that when “ property once becomes the homestead, so long as it so remains the husband cannot, by building houses thereon, so separate a portion of it as to subject it to forced sale, as that would be doing indirectly what he could not do directly,” as this charge was not applicable to the facts.

¶3Reversed and bemandeb.

/2/posey/274 · .json · Public domain