Watkins v. Hall

Citations

• 57 Tex. 1
• 1882 Tex. LEXIS 78

Syllabus

<p>1. Community property — Administration.— One owning community property with the wife, on her death sold it, without qualifying under the statute so as to administer it. He sold for the purpose of paying community debts, and afterwards qualified under the statute as survivor, and conveyed by deed the same property to the purchaser from his vendee in the first sale. In a suit between the heirs of his deceased wife and the party claiming title under the last deed, held,</p> <p>(1) The fact that the surviving husband may have parted with his individual interest by the first deed could not impair his right, after qualifying as survivor, to administer the residue of the community interest, title to which passed by the second deed.</p> <p>(2) A verbal partition between the heir of the deceased wife and the party claiming under the deed, made before the surviving husband qualified, conferred no right on the heir to any portion set apart to such heir by the partition. The parties had no power to withdraw any portion of the property from administration by the husband.</p> <p>(8) It was the right of the surviving husband to sell for the payment of community debts, even though the property brought more than enough for that purpose. The right of the heir of the deceased wife to the interest in the excess derived by inheritance from the mother is secured by the bond of the surviving husband.</p> <p>2. Certificate of acknowledgment.—See opinion for certificate of acknowledgment to a deed, which, though not in the form prescribed by statute, was held a substantial compliance with the law.</p>