Court Opinion

ID: 9670483
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 03:21:31.33901+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:04.994851
License: Public Domain

On the Merits
The question confronting us in this case is, shall a decree providing for the support and maintenance of the former wife, which was never a lien upon the homestead of her former husband, be superior to the homestead exemption in favor of his widow and minor children? We have found no case in this or any other jurisdiction which squarely answers this question.
It is established in this state that a decree for alimony is not such a debt within the meaning of the statutes as to allow a husband’s claim of homestead exemption. Horan v. Horan, 259 Ala. 117, 65 So.2d 486; Littleton v. Littleton, 224 Ala. 103, 139 So. 335; Ford v. Ford, 201 Ala. 519, 78 So. 873. But such a decree without a provision that it shall be a lien upon the husband’s homestead, does not ipso facto create a lien. Barksdale v. Jordan, 253 Ala. 199, 43 So.2d 406. Code 1940, T. 7, § 327, provides that executions on decrees are liens in the same manner as are executions in courts of law and T. 7, § 521, provides for liens on executions in law courts.
In the instant case, the husband had never paid any money pursuant to the decree; there had been no execution issued or notice of levy; and the record is silent as to any move having been made by the first wife to collect the award under the decree until after her former husband’s death.
In this state there is a distinction made in the homestead which is exempt to a husband, and a homestead exemption in favor of the widow or minor children or both. Title 7, § 661 as it read at the time of the husband’s death is as follows:
“The homestead of any resident of this state, leaving surviving him at his death a widow and minor child or children, or either, with the improvements and appurtenances not exceeding in value two thousand dollars, and in area one hundred and sixty acres, shall be exempt from administration and the payment of the debts in favor of such widow and minor children, or either, in any event, during the life of the widow, or the minority of the child or children, whichever may last terminate; and the rents and profits of such homestead, if there be a widow and no minor child, shall inure to her benefit during her life; or if there be a minor child or children, and no widow, then to the benefit of such child, or children, during minority; or if there be both widow and minor child or children, then to their equal benefit during the life of the widow and the minority of the child or children. Such homestead may be retained by the widow or minor child or children, until it is ascertained whether the estate is solvent or insolvent; and if the estate is insolvent, it shall vest in them absolutely, and it shall not be sold or partitioned by order of any court until the death of the widow and the youngest child is of age, except by the order of the circuit court in equity, for reinvestment, with the consent of the widow, in writing, if living.”
This exemption vests at the death of the owner, is free from administration and continues during the life of the widow and the minority of the children. Weber v. Short, 55 Ala. 311, Miller v. Marx, 55 Ala. 322. It will be noted that this exemption is “in favor of such widow and minor children, or either” and as evidence of the legislative intent the last sentence of Section 662, Title *1317, as tíien applicable reads, “And in no case, and under no circumstances, shall the widow and the minor children, or either of them, be deprived of homestead or two thousand dollars in lieu thereof, if they or either of them apply therefor in manner as herein provided before final distribution of the decedent’s estate.”
There is no question but that the widow here has applied for the exemption in favor of herself, her infant daughter and the minor child of decedent by his former marriage before the final distribution of the decedent’s estate.
The courts of this state have been alert in seeking to carry out the beneficent purposes of the exemption laws and it has been consistent public policy to try to protect wherever possible the rights of a widow or minor children, or either, in order that they might not become a public charge and that they might continue to have the protection of the family rooftree. Walker v. Hayes, 248 Ala. 492, 28 So.2d 413. In the instant case it is not argued that the first marriage was not dissolved according to law, and the case was tried on the theory that the husband was free to contract the second marriage and that the second marriage was valid. While we have consistently held that a judgment for alimony cannot be defeated by the husband’s claim of exemption, our research has failed to produce any case where this court has held that any decree of alimony which had not been established as a lien upon the homestead of the husband, was superior to the widow’s claim of homestead exemption.
We certainly do not mean to intimate that the ex-husband of the first wife could defeat a decree for alimony or for support and maintenance by remarrying. But if the first wife delays in effecting a lien upon his property until his death, she must look to that portion of the decedent’s property which is over and above the homestead exemption and in the instant case it is alleged that the decedent owned personal property of value of $32 and that the homestead property was not over 80 acres and had never exceeded $1,500 in value.
As evidence of the legislative intention to give a greater exemption in favor of the widow than to the husband during his lifetime, we point to the fact that § 661, now provides for an exemption in favor of the widow of $6,000 while the exemption in favor of the husband, provided for in § 625 of Title 7, remains at $2,000.
Our attention has been called to the case of Erlenbach v. Cox, 206 Ala. 298, 89 So. 465, which holds that judgment in a tort action against a husband and recorded during his lifetime was superior to his widow’s claim of homestead exemption in his property.
We think there is a real distinction between the instant case and that of Erlenbach v. Cox, supra. The opening sentence of the opinion in that case is “Appellants recovered judgments in certain tort actions against one C. C. Cox, which judgments were duly and promptly recorded in Dallas county, as provided by law for the establishment of a lien upon all property of the defendant therein subject to levy and sale under execution.” The court goes on to show that irrespective of the omission of the words “ ‘contracted since the 13th day of July, 1868’ ” following the word “debt”, and the addition of the sentence which we have heretofore quoted from § 662 of Title 7, that the rule still prevails in this state that there can be no claim of exemption against an execution issued on a judgment in an action ex delicto, and then we find this significant sentence: “The recordation of the judgments created a lien under the statute during the lifetime of the judgment debtor, and the complainants in filing this bill have pursued the proper course for the enforcement thereof.”
It is very evident that the court placed much stress upon the fact that the judgments had been recorded during the lifetime of C. C. Cox.
As previously stated, no judgment or decree in the instant case had been recorded, nor had any lien attached during the husband’s lifetime, although the provisions of § 585, Title 7, which provide for the creation of a lien for ten years for every judg*132ment or decree recorded in the office of the Probate Judge, was open and available to the first wife from October 13, 1947 until the date of the death of her former husband, on March 31, 1950.
The lower court should have proceeded to ascertain the value of the homestead and if within the statutory protection, it should have been set aside to her and the minor children of decedent, including his minor children by both marriages, instead of being sold to satisfy the unrecorded claim of the former wife.
The decree of the lower court is reversed and the cause is remanded for further proceedings.
Reversed and remanded.
LIVINGSTON, C. J., and LAWSON and STAKELY, JJ., concur.
SIMPSON, GOODWYN and MAYFIELD, JJ., concur that the motions to dismiss the appeal should be overruled, but dissent as to the merits.