White v. Sharpe
White v. Sharpe
Opinion of the Court
The question presented in this record is whether a certain homestead right passed by the sale of the property in a former partition proceeding.' The facts may be briefly stated.
‘Joseph White died intestate in Claiborne County,, in 1880, leaving a widow and nine children surviving him. The intestate died seized in fee of three tracts of land situated in Claiborne County, one of' which was known as the “home tract.” The widow died in 1883 without any allotment of dower having-been made to her, but leaving minor children entitled to homestead in said lands. In March,' 1884, two of the adult children, who had purchased the interest of their sister, Mrs. Gibson, in said lands, filed their bill in the Chancery Court of Claiborne County against their six minor brothers and sisters, seeking a sale of said three tracts of land for partition. It appears that these three minors were all served with process and were represented by a guardian ad litem in answering the bill. The bill in this case alleged all jurisdictional facts which are necessary to authorize a sale of the land for partition. Such proceedings were had that the Chancellor ordered a sale of the lands, and at such "sale the defendant, Sharpe, became the purchaser of the home tract at the price of $6,941, which he paid, and title was divested out of the other parties and vested in said purchaser.
It is conceded that the assignment of homestead to the minor defendants was overlooked by the par-
The present bill was filed June 19, 1893, by the defendants in the original cause, four of whom had in the meantime attained their majority, while two of the daughters were still minors. The bill assailed the validity of the decree in the original proceedings, alleged that the assignment of the homestead
The Chancellor dismissed the bill. The Court of Chancery Appeals affirmed the decree of the Chancellor, except as to the homestead claimed in the pleadings, and, in respect of the homestead, the decree of the Chancellor was modified, the Court directing that a homestead be set apart out of the home tract purchased by Sharpe for Josie S. White, who is a minor and will not attain her majority until September 23, 1901, and to this end, as well as for an account of the rents and profits of the homestead, the. cause was remanded. The defendant, Sharpe, appealed and has assigned errors.
The first assignment is, “that the Court of Chancery Appeals erred in decreeing that, under the bill in the original cause, filed Max’ch 7, 1884, the Chancery Court at Tazewell acquired no jurisdiction over the homestead rights of the minor defendants in said cause. ’ ’
The second assignment is, “that the. Court of Chancery Appeals erred in holding that, under said original bill and the proceedings and decrees therein, the homestead rights of the minor defendants were not sold to and purchased by Sharpe in the price of $6,941 he bid and paid for said home tract of land. ’ ’
The third assignment is, “that the Court of Chancery Appeals erred in holding that said Sharpe had
The fourth assignment is ‘! that the Court erred in ordering an account of the value of the rents of said homestead for the joint benefit of Emma S. and Jocie S. White from June 19, 1893, to February 23, 1896.”
The fifth assignment is “that the Court erred in holding that under the bill, decrees, and proceedings in said original cause, the homestead rights of the minor defendants therein were not transferred from the land itself to the fund realized from the sale of the land, as the Chancery Court in the original cause held and decreed.”
These several assignments of error are' cognate, and present the different phases of the homestead presented in the record and arising upon the report of the Court of Chancery Appeals. They will therefore be considered together.
The general question is whether the Chancery Court in the original cause had jurisdiction of the homestead rights of the minor defendants — whether the question was presented in the pleadings in that case so as to have warranted the Chancellor in adjudicating said homestead rights. Counsel for appellant
We entirely agree with the conclusion reached by the Court of Chancery Appeals. Counsel are in error in the position so confidently assumed in argument, that, while the homestead rights of the minors were not in terms specifically mentioned in the original bill, yet the bill did state every fact from which the homestead rights of the minor defendants were apparent on the face of the bill. Upon the inspection of the bill in the original cause, we do not find any recitation or allegation that the réal estate therein described and sought to
Affirmed.
Reference
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- Published