Opinion ID: 1675397
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: The Homestead Exemption Claim

Text: There is evidence to support the trial court's finding that the decedent, at the time of his death, lived in the Albertville house, which was held by him and his wife as joint tenants with right of survivorship. This house, then, was the homestead. It has been said that the term homestead is nowhere defined in our Constitution, nor by statute. Homestead for Survivors in Alabama, 27 Ala.L.Rev. 443 (1975). It is particularly regrettable that this is so because, as one writer has noted, one of the most complicated and inscrutable areas of Alabama law is that found in the homestead statutes. Holt, Intestate Succession in Alabama, 23 Ala.L.Rev. 319 (1971). This Court has approved the following definition: A homestead, in law, means a home place, or place of the home, and is designed as a shelter of the homestead roof, and not as a mere investment in real estate, or the rents and profits derived therefrom. Griffin v. Ayers, 231 Ala. 493, 496, 165 So. 593, 595 (1936). The Court has also defined homestead as the roof that shelters and the land actually used in connection therewith for the comfort and sustenance of the family.... Mullins v. Baker, 193 Ala. 594, 596, 69 So. 516, 517 (1915). From these and other statements, it can be said that the homestead of a decedent is made up of his home, and home means the house occupied by him (or her) at death. See Wildman v. Means, 208 Ala. 487, 94 So. 823 (1922). By this definition, Mr. Durham's homestead was the home shared by him and his wife in Albertville at the time of his death. Since it was owned by them jointly with right of survivorship, the widow takes fee simple title under the deed, and the provisions of the Constitution and homestead statutes are inapplicable. Jones, Alabama Probate LawNeed for Revision of Intestate Provisions, 20 Ala.L.Rev. 1 (1967); Holt, supra, at 348. It is only when the decedent has no homestead that the surviving spouse is entitled to the homestead exemption of $6,000 out of other real estate owned by the decedent. Section 6-10-61, Code of Ala.1975. Because the decedent here had a homestead, as defined by our law, in Albertville, the widow is not entitled to an additional $6,000 out of other real estate owned by her husband.