Hardin v. Howze

Citations

• 18 S.C. 73
• 1882 S.C. LEXIS 109

Syllabus

<p>1. The ease of Howze v. Howze, 2 S. G. 229, determined the conditions upon which the claimant there would be entitled to a homestead, but it did not settle the existence of those conditions; and whether a homestead ever liad been assigned in that case was, in this case, a question of fact for the jury.</p> <p>2. At that time there was no statute covering the claim for homestead in that case, and the claim, therefore, rested alone upon the constitutional provision, which secures a homestead on two essential conditions: That the claimant is the head of a famify, and that he is in possession of a dwelling-house and out-buildings on the land claimed as a homestead. When these conditions do not exist, or have ceased, the exemption cannot be claimed by virtue of the constitution alone.</p> <p>3. Howze v. Howze, supra, held (erroneously but controllingly) that the claimant was entitled to a homestead if the land contained a dwelling-house occupied by the deceased father of claimant, and if claimant was the, head of a family; the Circuit judge, therefore, erred here in charging the jury that the right of claimant to this homestead expired with his minority, the former adjudication having fixed no such limitation.</p>