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78 Cal. 483

Hunt v. Sharp

California Supreme Court

Decided March 23, 1889

California Supreme Court · decided 1889-03-23

<p>Estate of Decedent — Homestead—Premises Suitable bob mat be Set Apart—Previous Business Use.—Premises belonging to the estate of a decedent which are suitable and proper for use as a homestead may be set apart as such to his widow, although they had previously been used exclusively for business purposes.</p> <p>Id.—Finding that Premises are Suitable—Evidence—Presumption on Appeal. — In the absence of evidence to the contrary, a finding that the premises are suitable and proper for a homestead will be presumed on appeal to have been supported by the evidence.</p>

Relies on In re the Estate of Noah · Bowman v. His Creditors · In re Estate of Busse

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1889-03-23

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently July 1926

4 state decisions

2018891890190019101920decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Foote, C.

¶1Appeal from an order setting aside a homestead to a widow under section 1465 of the Code of Civil Procedure.

¶2The third specification made on the part of the appellant why the evidence was insufficient to justify the decision and order is, that “the evidence fails to show that said premises so set aside as a homestead are now or ever were or can be used as a dwelling-place.”

¶3Conceding, without deciding, that the bill of exceptions contains any evidence upon the point involved, which it is permissible that the appellate court should consider on this appeal, nevertheless it is apparent that such evidence is insufficient to demand a reversal of the order.

¶4Let it be admitted that the evidence shows the premises were not used as a dwelling-place at the time the homestead was set apart, and that they were used at the time of the death of the husband of the widow, and ever, since had been used, as a store, in part as an office, and in part for storage purposes, and yet it may be that the premises were, as found by the court below, “suitable and proper for a homestead.”

¶5If the premises, as we must presume them to have been (there being no evidence to contradict the finding), were suitable and proper for a homestead, it was properly set apart to the widow. In re Bowman, 69 Cal. 245, which was a case where an insolvent had a homestead set apart to him under the provisions of section 1465 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the appellate court said: “The appellant contends that the court below erred in *485so doing, because the premises set apart to the insolvent never constituted his residence. The statute regulating the matter does not require that they should ever have constituted his residence. The finding of the court is, that the property set apart is suitable and proper for a homestead, and that was a sufficient basis for the order setting it apart.”

¶6It would seem, therefore, that a homestead, such as the one here set apart, “'may be carved out of any property left by the decedent which is capable of being made a homestead.” (In re Bowman, supra, citing Estate of Busse, 35 Cal. 310.)

¶7We do not understand the case of In re Noah, 73 Cal. 590 (in which the opinion was written by the learned judge who concurred in what was said in In re Bowman, supra), to be in conflict with what is here said. It was there decided that premises could be set apart as a homestead if there was a house or “edifice” thereon “which could be used as a dwelling-house,” even if not occupied as such at the time the order setting it apart was made. It is there said, also, that it must be property “which could have been selected as a homestead during the continuance of the marriage.” But there is nothing in this record to show but what the premises here involved could have been selected as a homestead during the marriage, and could have been used as a dwelling-house.

¶8The appellant has abandoned all other contentions except the one discussed above. We advise that the order be affirmed.

¶9Belchee, 0. 0., concurred.

¶10Hayne, 0., took no part in the decision.

The Court.

¶11For the reasons given in the foregoing opinion, the order is affirmed.

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