Stephens v. Shaw

Citations

• 68 Tex. 261
• 4 S.W. 458
• 1887 Tex. LEXIS 676

Syllabus

<p>1. Descent and Distribution.—Upon the death of the wife in 1877, the descendants of such decedent other than the children, inherited no part of the community estate; following Burgess v. Hargrove, 64 Texas, 110.</p> <p>2. Separate Property.—Deed.—The interest of a married woman in land inherited from a deceased parent as part of such parent’s community estate, is not divested by showing that such married woman, acting alone in her own right, independent of her husband, received from the surviving parent a sum of money in payment for her interest, and executed a transfer and release of such interest to the surviving parent— as part of her separate estate—such interest could only be conveyed by the joint deed of the husband and wife, accompanied with a certificate of the privy acknowledgment of the wife.</p> <p>3. Equity.—Equity in seeking to uphold a family settlement consummated in the absence of fraud between the parties in interest, will not enforce it against one laboring under a statutory disability to make such settlement. When the statute prohibits the consummation of the settlement in the manner attempted, equity can not affect it.</p> <p>4. Same.—If, however, a married woman, who, in a family settlement, acting alone and for herselt, receives a consideration for land inherited by her as part of the community estate of her mother, and makes a deed thereto to her surviving father, in which she is not joined by her husband, though she can not thus divestherself of title, and mayrecover the land, she can only do so by accounting to those who have become entitled to the deceased father’s interest for the money she received in settlement with him.</p>