Rawlins v. Dade Lumber Co.

Citations

• 80 Fla. 398
• 86 So. 334

Syllabus

<p>1. Under Sections 1 and 2 of Article X of the Constitution, if the head of a family residing in this State is the owner of a homestead as defined hy the Constitution, at the death of such owner, “the exemptions provided for shall inure to the widow and heirs” if the owner he a married man. The statute prescribes who are to he the “heirs” and what interests or rights in. “the exemptions provided for in” the Constitution “shall inur.e to the widow and heirs of the party entitled to such exemption.”</p> <p>2. As to real estate other than a homestead, the “children and their descendants” of a male parent are his “heirs;” Section 2295, General Statutes of 1906; hut as to the homestead real estate, if there are no children of the owner of a homestead at his death, and he leaves a wife surviving him, she takes the entire property.</p> <p>3. Where the husband who lived on. his homestead with his wife, they having no children, leaves his wife on the homestead and lives elsewhere in the same town, the wife remaining on the homestead, and the husband executes a deed of conveyance of the homestead to the wife, such conveyance may be a relinquishment to the wife of the husband’s rights in the homestead, there being no children to whom the homestead could “inure” as heirs of the husband, and the homestead may be exempt from the lien of judgments obtained against-the husband after the relinquishment by conveyance to the wife. In such a case if the homestead rights have been lost, the conveyance to the wife for a sufficient consideration would give her a title to the exclusion of the liens of judgments obtained against the husband after the conveyance to her, there being no fraud.</p>