Harris v. Sims
Harris v. Sims
Opinion of the Court
This is an appeal from the lower court’s order which denied appellant Pennie Lee Harris’ petition for assignment of dower and estopped her from asserting any right to dower in property formerly owned by her deceased husband.
Jordan D. Harris, appellant’s husband, conveyed a parcel of real property to ap-pellees, Wilbur C. Sims and Michealane Sims, his wife, in November 1968 subject to a first mortgage and a purchase money second mortgage. Harris, by affidavit, represented himself to the appellees as a single man and he conveyed the subject property without the joinder of his wife.
For a fourteen month period following the settlement, appellees made the required payments to the trust account and in reliance upon the settlement they made improvements in the property, paid taxes, insurance premiums and .they continued to make the mortgage payments on the first mortgage. In March 1971 appellant filed a petition for letters of administration in this cause and in April 1971 she filed her election to take dower and had it served upon the appellees. The trial court denied the petition for assignment of dower and es-topped appellant from claiming any right, title or interest in the subject property.
Appellant’s willful actions in this cause prompted appellees to believe that no claim for dower could be forthcoming from appellant. In reliance upon appellant’s representations, appellees improved the property and performed the other acts enumerated above. All of these circumstances taken together produce the necessary elements for an estoppel against appellant which will now preclude her from attempting to maintain a position inconsistent with her earlier position. Barsumian v. Barsumian, Fla.App.1970, 235 So.2d 515; United Contractors, Inc. v. United Construction Corp., Fla.App.1966, 187 So.2d 695.
The application of the doctrine of estop-pel to cases involving a widow’s claim for dower has been repeatedly approved by the Florida courts if the requisite elements are established. Johnson v. Hayes, Fla.1951, 52 So.2d 109; LaMar v. Lechlider, 135 Fla. 703, 185 So. 833 (1939); Robison v. Krause, Fla.App.1962, 136 So.2d 373; Youngelson v. Youngelson’s Estate, Fla.App.1959, 114 So.2d 642; Wax v. Wilson, Fla.App.1958, 101 So.2d 54.
Therefore, having determined that the trial judge committed no error, the order appealed from is hereby affirmed.
Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.