Title: Monroe v. Monroe

State: arkansas

Issuer: Arkansas Supreme Court

Document:

465 S.W.2d 347 (1971) Bryan MONROE, Appellant, v. Sleetie MONROE, Appellee. No. 5-5539. Supreme Court of Arkansas. April 12, 1971. *348 W. F. Denman, Jr., Prescott, for appellant. John L. Wilson, Hope, for appellee. JONES, Justice. This appeal involves a widow's rights in the homestead of her deceased husband and the question is whether she has abandoned it. Sleetie Monroe lived with her husband, W. E. Monroe, on his rural homestead near Hope, in Hempstead County, Arkansas, until his death in November, 1952. Mr. Monroe left as his sole surviving heir Bryan Monroe, who was an only son by a previous marriage. Mrs. Monroe continued to live on the homestead until June, 1953, when she rented out the house on the homestead and moved to Hope where she has resided in different houses purchased by her since moving from the homestead. Bryan Monroe instituted the present action in the Hempstead County Chancery Court alleging that Mrs. Monroe has abandoned the homestead and he prayed for an accounting and award of damages for waste in the cutting and sale of timber from the homestead land. The chancellor found that Mrs. Monroe had not abandoned the homestead and entered a decree accordingly. On appeal to this court Bryan Monroe relies on the following points for reversal: We are of the opinion that the chancellor's decree is not against the preponderance of the evidence and should be affirmed. Article 9, § 3 of the Constitution of 1874 reads as follows: *349 This section of the constitution applies to either the wife or husband when married, and to either of them, or to anyone else who is the head of a family, whether married or not. Consequently, any resident of this state of either sex, who is married, or who is the head of a family, is entitled to the exemption of a homestead under the constitution. Thompson v. King, 54 Ark. 9, 14 S.W. 925. In addition to a married woman's right to homestead exemption, she has certain constitutional rights as a widow in the homestead of her deceased husband as set out in § 6 of Article 9 of the constitution, which is as follows: The case of Butler v. Butler, 176 Ark. 126, 2 S.W.2d 63, involved the question of abandonment of a homestead; first by the husband, and then by the widow after her husband's death. In that case, as in the case at bar, the litigation was between children of the deceased husband by a first marriage and their stepmother. In the Butler case John Butler had established a rural homestead in Logan County on which there was located a coal mine. In 1916 he moved with his family to Crawford County where he continued to reside until his death in 1918. After Mr. Butler's death, his widow went to Fort Smith to live where she purchased a home for herself and minor children in order to obtain the advantage of better schools for the children and employment for herself. One of the children by the previous marriage administered his father's estate and after winding up the administration, he turned the possession of the Logan County lands back to his stepmother and she continued to receive the rents and proceeds from both the farming operations and the mining of coal. The husband of one of the Butler heirs by the first marriage brought the abandonment of the homestead into issue and the chancellor found that John Butler had not abandoned his homestead in Logan County by his removal to Crawford County, and that neither had the widow abandoned the Butler homestead in Logan County. The Butler decision distinguishes between an acquired homestead and the rights of a widow in her deceased husband's homestead; and the Butler case so clearly sets out the law applicable to the case at bar, we feel justified in quoting at length from Butler as follows: In the case at bar Mrs. Monroe testified that at the time of her husband's death, the cultivatable land on the homestead had been permitted to grow up in brush, and that after his death she had the brush removed and the land planted to pine seedlings. She testified that she had harvested timber twice from the land through selective cutting, and the chancellor found that the truth of this evidence was borne out by previous orders of the Hempstead County Probate Court authorizing such procedure. Mrs. Monroe further testified that she left the homestead soon after her husband's death and went to live with her sister and her sister's husband in Hope because they feared for her safety living alone on the homestead, and because she desired and obtained self-employment as a practical nurse in Hope. She testified that it has been, and still is, her intention to return and live on the homestead when she is no longer able to work in Hope. This avowed intention is borne out in the testimony of Mrs. Monroe's sister, who lives with her, and there is no evidence in the record to the contrary. *352 In the chancellor's findings of fact he recites that after the hearing Mrs. Monroe, through her solicitor, announced her intention of applying the money she had received through the harvest and sale of timber from the homestead, to the making of specified improvements to the residential buildings still on the homestead. The chancellor included in his decree orders pertaining to the carrying out of these announced intentions and Mrs. Monroe has not appealed from this portion of the decree. We are of the opinion that the decree of the chancellor is not against the preponderance of the evidence in this case, and that it should be affirmed. Affirmed.