Myers v. Ham

Citations

• 20 S.C. 522
• 1884 S.C. LEXIS 42

Syllabus

<p>1. Slaves married before emancipation according to the custom among plantation negroes, and living together as man and wife in 1865, were declared by the act of that year (13 Stat. 269) to be lawfully married; and their children are legitimate.</p> <p>2. Where a child of such parents lives with his father, the father is the head of a family within the meaning of the homestead laws.</p> <p>3. A judgment debtor’s land was sold by the sheriff, without objection or claim of homestead by the debtor, and was purchased by the judgment creditor. Held, that such debtor was not estopped from afterwards claiming a homestead in this land.</p> <p>4. A debtor cannot maintain an action in the Circuit Court to have a homestead assigned to him. He must follow the statutory proceedings, which are exclusive.</p> <p>Mr. Justice McGowan, concurred in the result.</p>