Opinion ID: 708180
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: mcdaniel: single adult or family?

Text: 12 If a debtor uses land for the purposes of a rural home, he is entitled to claim a rural homestead exemption of up to one hundred acres or up to two hundred acres depending on his status. 11 If the debtor has a family, he is entitled to claim a rural homestead consisting of no more than two hundred acres. 12 If, on the other hand, the debtor is a single adult, he is entitled to claim a rural homestead consisting of no more than one hundred acres. 13 13 The word family is a term of art in Texas homestead jurisprudence. 14 Border does not question that McDaniel and his wife comprised a family prior to his wife's death. Border does contend, however, that the district court erred in holding that McDaniel may claim a family, rather than a single adult, homestead exemption after the death of his wife. Although McDaniel, a widower with no dependent children, is not a family in the traditional sense, he remains a family for the purposes of Texas homestead law: 14 The language of the Constitution is plain. The surviving spouse has the same homestead rights as both spouses had prior to the death of one; and this is true whether the survivor be the husband or the wife. 15 15 In the Eyes of Texas, McDaniel constitutes a family  'til Gabriel blows his horn, and the 165 acres he lives on is sheltered by the Texas family homestead exemption. Like the Light Brigade, ours not to reason why.... 16 AFFIRMED.