Woolfolk v. Ricketts

Citations

• 48 Tex. 28

Syllabus

<p>1. Homestead—Abandonment.—When the family have in fact removed from one house, or “ mansion house,” and its adjoining land, and taken up them permanent abode and place of residence in another house, upon a different place, if there be nothing connected with such removal to indicate that it was temporary, and not permanent, the presumption exists, in support of the title of one who has purchased the former homestead, that it was abandoned as a homestead.</p> <p>2. Homestead—Abandonment.—When the object of a removal from a homestead is uncertain or equivocal, the cotemporaneous declarations of either husband or wife, if not inconsistent with, but calculated to explain, the real import and purpose of such removal, would he entitled to much weight, especially if publicly made, and when in conformity with subsequent-conduct.</p> <p>3. Homestead—Abandonment.—But where there is an open and palpable abandonment of one home and a removal to another, and where every action of both the husband and wife, for a series of nine or ten years, indicated that their removal was intended to be permanent, the mere declarations of the wife, as against a purchaser who had in good faith purchased and paid for the former home, that she did .not intend to abandon it, cannot, with any reason, he claimed as outweighing the evidence of abandonment thus furnished by the acts of herself and husband.</p>