Partee v. Stewart

Citations

• 50 Miss. 717

Syllabus

<p>1. Homestead Exemption — How Acquired —• How Lost. — The debtor holds the homestead exempt upon the condition of occupancy as a residence; if abandoned, it is immediately subject to seizure and sale by a judgment creditor. When several separate tracts of land are owned by a debtor, the privilege of making a selection of the homestead does not exist. The law confines it to the parcel upon which the family reside and have their domicil.</p> <p>2. Husband and Wine — Agency. — The husband is not the general agent of the wife and cannot by his acts defeat the wife’s interest in real estate, unless thereto authorized or sanctioned by her. Code of 1857, p. 314.</p> <p>3. Homestead Exemption — Case in Judgment. — The law gives a homestead to every owner of the land, being a householder and head of a family. A married woman, the owner of separate property, and residing upon it as a domicil, with her family, is entitled to claim her homestead exemption. The husband is the head of a family, in the sense that wife and children are subject to his marital and paternal control. But he has no authority and control over the wife’s property or the application of it to the support and nurture of the family, unless by her consent. If the land occupied is the domicil of the family, it is her residence with supreme control, except that she cannot mortgage it on a lien without his approbation.</p>