In re Estate of Winslow

Citations

• 121 Cal. 92
• 53 P. 362
• 1898 Cal. LEXIS 854

Syllabus

<p>Homestead—Abandonment—Contract Between Husband and Wife.—A contract between a husband and wife for a separation between them which provided for an equal division of all property between them, including the homestead, referred to as the residence of the parties, and which specified that, inasmuch as the real estate was incapable of partition, a fixed valuation of all of the property, real and personal, was agreed upon, one-half of which valuation was paid by the husband to the wife, and in which the wife renounced and relinquished all claims of every kind against the husband, and granted and conveyed to him all of her title in the property—the same having been acknowledged by both parties, and duly recorded—operated as an abandonment of the homestead by both spouses, within the meaning of sections 1243 and 1244 of the Civil Code.</p> <p>Id.—Form of Abandonment—Designation of Homestead.—The law has prescribed no form of words for the abandonment of a homestead, and the meaning of an instrument intended to have that effect is to be determined by the rules which control the interpretation of other contracts, and where the provisions of an Instrument executed and acknowledged by both husband and wife, and recorded, cannot have their natural and obviously intended effect without an abandonment of the homestead, it will be construed as such; nor is it necessary that the instrument shall expressly refer to the property as a homestead, in order to operate as an abandonment thereof, where such abandonment follows from the provisions of the instrument.</p>