Collins v. Bounds
Collins v. Bounds
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
This appeal is from a decree overruling a motion to dissolve an injunction which had been granted to Bounds and wife, restraining appellants from committing waste on a 40-acre tract of land. The sole question involved is whether or not there had been such an abandonment of the homestead as to enable the husband, without the wife’s joinder, to make a valid conveyance of part of it. The chancellor-had evidence before him, which no doubt determined his action, to the following effect: The husband made a homestead entry from the government of the United States of one hundred and twenty acres of land, which included the forty acres in controversy. He owed W. N. Collins the entry money — about $31 — which he had borrowed from him to make the entry. The dwelling house and garden and other little improvements of Bounds, including a few acres of cleared land, would have continued to have been occupied by him and his wife but for the death of his only horse, which left him imable to work his land. At this juncture his father-in-law, who lived four miles distant, offered him the use of a horse and land to cultivate, so that he might make a crop and realize enough to enable him to buy a horse and cultivate his homestead land. This offer he accepted, and he and his wife went to her father’s with this specific object, and with the express purpose to return after making and marketing the crop; and the object was accomplished, and thereupon they did return to the homestead, which they never had any intention to permanently abandon. It is to be particularly noted that on going to- the father’s they left on their premises some of their house
In full view of the cases of Majors v. Majors, 58 Miss., 806; Moore v. Bradford, 70 Miss., 70, 11 South., 630; and Thompson v. Tillotson, 56 Miss., 36, we hold, in the case at bar, on its facts, that there was no abandonment of the homestead; that the removal from it was because of necessity and temporary, and that this ruling is consistent with the decisions above cited; and that the chancellor properly overruled the motion to dissolve the injunction.
Affirmed and remanded for such other proceedings as may he proper.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- William N. Collins v. James A. Bounds et ux.
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Homestead. Abandonment. Temporary absence. Animus revertendi. A; temporary removal fromi the homestead ■ by husband and wife / because of necessity, they retaining an intention to return to the ' premises, is not such an abandonment of the home as will render valid the deed of the husband threto, in which' the wife did not join, under code 1892, §1983, providing that a conveyance by the husband of the homestead shall not be valid unless signed by the wife, etc.