Bates v. McDowell
Bates v. McDowell
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
The appellant is not entitled to recover in this action, because Mrs. Burrus’ claim to be endowed of the land sold under execution against- her husband in 1840 was not maintainable. Her right as dowress was determinable by the law in force in 1870, when her husband died, which was the Code of 1857 (p. 467, art. 162).
Under that she was entitled to be endowed of all the lands of which her husband died seized and possessed, or which he had before conveyed otherwise than in good faith and for a valuable consideration. The husband did not,die “ seized and possessed ’ ’ of the land which was sold by the sheriff under execution against him in 1840, nor had he made a conveyance of it in fraud of the rights of his wife. Gould v. Luckett, 47 Miss. 96.
Of such land only was the widow entitled to be endowed by virtue of the Code of 1857.
Judgment affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- A. J. Bates v. T. H. McDowell
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- 1 case
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- Syllabus
- 1. Dower. Death of husband in 1870. Seisin in 1840. Code of 1857. Where a husband died in 1870, his widow’s claim for dower in land of which he was seized in 1840 was determinable by art. 162, p. 467, of the Code of 1857, in force at the time of his death, and not by the law in force at the time of his seisin. 2. Same. Claimed in land sold under execution. Seisin of husband. Where, in 1840, land ^belonging to a married man was sold under an execution against him, and the title thereof conveyed by the sheriff to the purchaser, the widow, upon the death of the husband in 1870, had no right of dower in such land under the Code of 1857, because he was not seized and possessed of the land at the time of his death, and had made no conveyance thereof in fraud of his wife’s rights.