Crockett v. Templeton
Crockett v. Templeton
Opinion of the Court
Prior to 1870 widower O. W. Crockett and widow Jeffries were united in marriage. In February,
Since the division he has never lived with his wife upon her part of the tract, but he has acquired no other home. Without her consent he can mantle no other habitation with homestead protections. Until he and she unite in abandoning the part she occupies, that is their homestead. He doubtless no longer asserts any interest in her part of the land, but still it cannot be taken for his debts. Why may his part, in which he still asserts the homestead interest, be taken? She can no more abandon his to his creditors than he can her’s. They
Appellee might have been an innocent purchaser if he had bought from Kempner whilst the legal title and possession were with him, but, buying under an execution against Crockett, he cannot, on the principles stated, be innocent of Crockett’s purpose in acquiring the title from Kempner to make the land in controversy a part of his home. That such was his purpose Crockett declared to his neighbors and testified on the stand. The 541 acres of land were all in cultivation, but the land had no house on it. Crockett was too poor to build, but he used the rents in the support of himself and his four children— a grown son, a son 16 years old, a widowed and an unmarried daughter. He acquired no other land, nor attempted, so far as the record discloses, to dispose of this. These circumstances rather indicate than disprove the purpose he expressed.
There is nothing in the case of Edmundson v. Blessing, 42 Tex., 596, and 49 Tex., 333, in conflict with these views. There the deed contained recitals, which gave to it the legal effect of an abandonment of the homestead it conveyed. In the deed made to Kempner there was nothing inconsistent with Crockett’s right and purpose to use the land under his equitable ownership as his homestead. In Edmundson v. Blessing, the entire homestead being abandoned, it could be redestinated only by a new intent manifested by acts. In this case the homestead continued on Mrs. Crockett’s part, and the acquisition of a contiguous tract (the whole not exceeding 200 acres) itself sufficiently manifests the intent thus to extend the homestead, if the intent in fact exists. We conclude that the land in controversy was exempt from forced sale at the date of appellees purchase.
The judgment of the court below is reversed, and here rendered for
Beversed and Bendered.
[Opinion delivered November 10, 1885.]
Reference
- Full Case Name
- O. W. Crockett v. Jno. D. Templeton
- Cited By
- 8 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. Homestead—Innocent purchase—Abandonment.—Defendant and his wife occupied eighty-two acres of land as a homestead. They agreed to separate, and divided the land, his portion being under cultivation, but having no houses on it. To divest the wife of any interest in his part of the land, he and she joined in a deed conveying it to a third party, who, two years after, reconveyed it to defendant. The evidence showed that this third party was merely a trustee of the legal title for defendant. Defendant, with his children by a former marriage, moved to another county, and his wife, and her children by a former marriage, remained on her portion of the land. Defendant acquired no other lands, and expressed an intention of building a home on his part of the tract when he was financially able. Held: (1) That until the husband and wife united in abandoning the part she occupied, the husband could acquire no other homestead. (2) The homestead exemption still attached to his portion also, even if he had never owned it until it was conveyed to him by the third party. (3) If the owner of a tract, smaller than the amount exempted as a homestead, purchases an adjacent tract to fill out his homestead, he is not required to enclose or build upon this second tract, as its situation is sufficient to excite inquiry that would discover the intent. (4) One who bought from the third party while the legal title and possession were with him might be an innocent purchaser, but one who bought under an execution against defendant could not be. (5) Edmundson v. Blessing, 42 Tex., 596, reviewed, and shown not in conflict with the above views.