Court Opinion

ID: 9548859
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:09:51.057647+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:19:31.301362
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice HARNSBERGER
(dissenting).
This court ’has previously held that a conveyance to two persons who are husband and wife at the time property vests in them creates an estate by entireties. Peters v. Dona, 49 Wyo. 306, 54 P.2d 817; Ward Terry and Company v. Hensen, 75 Wyo. 444, 297 P.2d 213; Amick v. Elwood, 77 Wyo. 269, 314 P.2d 944.
The essential characteristics of an estate by the entireties are: (1) It can occur only between husband and wife and because, in contemplation of law, they are one person; (2) each is seized of all and not by one-half, or by any other portion of the property, as, for instance, in the case of an estate in common; and (3) the whole estate remains in the survivor. See 41 C.J.S. Husband and Wife § 34a, pp. 458^160, and Ballentine, Law Dictionary with Pronunciations, 2d Ed., “per tout et non per my”, p. 963. This leaves inescapable the conclusion that where there is a tenancy by the entireties there is no property whatsoever remaining in a decedent, or in his estate, from which the homestead allowance can be set over to the survivor of the marriage.
Tenancy by the entireties is different from all other types of tenancy. While more similar to a joint tenancy with right of survivorship, than to other tenancies, it is different in at least two respects: (1) Because it occurs only when the tenants are man and wife, and (2) because the unilateral action of either tenant cannot destroy the tenancy or affect the title.
Section 2-213, W.S.1957 says:
“ * * * When any resident of this state dies leaving a widower or widow, or minor children, the court shall set over to such widower or widow, if any, and if none, to such minor children, as their absolute property, all property of said decedent exempt from execution under the exemption laws of this state, including the homestead, and such property shall not be subject to the payment of debts of said decedent, except expenses of administration, or the last sickness of said decedent, and funeral expenses, in cases where there is not other property in said estate sufficient to pay said expenses; and in case decedent shall not have any or all of the property specified under said exemption laws, such widower, widow or minor children, as the case may be, shall be entitled to the value of such exempt property either in money or other property as they may prefer. Provided that, if such surviving spouse is not the parent of all or any such minor children, one-half of said property shall be set over to such surviving spouse and the other one-half to said minors who are not children of said survivor and a guardian shall be appointed for them as in any other cases of estate property descending to a minor. The right of a widower or widow to any of the property specified in this section shall in no case be affected by his or her renouncing or failing to renounce the benefit of the provisions made for him or her in the will of said decedent. (Laws 1919, ch. 28, § 1; C.S.1920, § 6879; R.S.1931, § 88-2904; Laws 1943, ch. 8, § 1; C.S.1945, § 6-1504.)”
In enacting this statute the legislature did not see fit to except from its requirement, for an allowance to surviving spouses, those instances where the surviving spouse was the owner of the property which was used as a homestead during the lifetime of the deceased, or cases where the title which deceased possessed during life became extinguished or terminated by death.
The majority opinion appends that exception to the statute. But to read such an *478exception as that above noted into the statutory provision is patently judicial legislation which cannot be justified on any theory of the law’s being so unclear as to require court interpretation, much less amplification or qualification.
The property to be set over to the widow and minor children under the provisions of § 2-213, W.S.1957, was not limited to the homestead, but consisted of “all property of said decedent exempt from execution.” It, therefore, included, in addition to the homestead described in § 1-498, W.S.1957, the apparel described in § 1-504, W.S.1957, the articles mentioned in §§ 1-505 and 1-506, W.S.1957, as well as the property used in earning a living, as provided by § 1-507, W.S.1957.
The appellant’s position, as well as the majority’s decision, leaves unaltered the money award to the two minors, who were children of the deceased, but not children of the surviving widow. This gives a strange result. The court denies a money allowance to the widow in lieu of the homestead the statute says shall be set over to her. This is presumably because the decedent does have the homestead referred to in the statute. Yet the court leaves standing an allowance in money in lieu of such homestead to the children of the deceased by a former marriage which may be done only when the decedent does not have the homestead.
The opinion’s assumption that § 2-213 must be construed along with applicable exemption laws because it pertains to property of decedent exempt from execution under such laws is of doubtful merit. The reference to the homestead exemption law, § 1-498, is merely to identify or describe the properties to be set over to the survivor or minor children. Section 2-213 neither amends, re-enacts nor repeals § 1-498. Aside from containing a description by reference, the only thing the first-named statute has in common with the latter is that they both exempt properties from execution. There is, however, neither ambiguity, uncertainty, conflict, nor overlapping in the exemptions given.
Tlie court’s majority overlooks or ignores a material difference between the homestead exemption statute and the homestead allowance statute in dispute here. Under the homestead exemption statute all that is preserved is the right of both spouses to use and occupy the premises free from levy and execution, irrespective of which of the spouses owns the property. But under the homestead allowance statute the surviving spouse receives the title itself to property which that spouse did not theretofore possess. This is a much greater right than is accorded under the homestead exemption law.
There is no dispute, that for purposes of the homestead exemption provided by § 1-498, it is immaterial which of the spouses owned the property claimed as a homestead, or as to whether the property was owned separately, jointly, in common, or by the entirety. If owned by either spouse, or by both spouses, in any type of tenancy, and used and occupied by the parties as a homestead, the property is to be protected and preserved from levy upon execution to the extent of the exemption value fixed by statute. But the homestead exemption law does not enlarge nor change the title by which the property is held. The most the exemption statute does is to protect the homestead property from being levied upon in execution. The other statute, however, gives as a special allowance to the surviving spouse or children, or both, a title to property which is to be taken from the estate of a deceased spouse. Under this last-named provision, if the decedent did not have the property referred to in the statute as the homestead, then the money provision in lieu thereof becomes operative. A person cannot be said to have property capable of being set over as an allowance from his estate when his entire interest in that property has terminated and been extinguished by death.
Although there may be a homestead in property, irrespective of the type of title possessed by either or both spouses, it would annul and defeat the only purpose of *479§ 2-213 to say a surviving spouse is to be denied the benefit of the allowance provided by that statute in cases where the survivor was theretofore and remained the sole owner of the property used as a homestead. To reach such a conclusion, § 2-213 must be interpreted as meaning that in the event the title to the property belonged solely to the survivor, but had been devoted to homestead use, that use would of itself exclude the survivor from all benefits provided by the statute.
It seems axiomatic to say if property which had been used and occupied as a homestead was transferred inter vivos by the concurring acts of the parties, the entitlement of the grantors of that property under either the homestead exemption law, § 1-498, or the probate allowance statute, § 2-213, would be lost. It is just as reasonable to say that when the parties have provided for themselves, or have accepted a type of title which terminates as to one of the spouses immediately and forthwith upon and at the indivisible instant of that spouse’s death, they have just as definitely and during their lifetime given their concurrent and mutual consent to the extinguishment of the title of the spouse who first dies.
There is a parallel between § 2-47, W.S. 1957, which denies a testator the right, as against the election of the surviving spouse, to deprive the survivor of certain portions of the estate of which the deceased died possessed. Section 2-213 just as definitely denies a testator the right to deprive the survivor of the allowance therein provided. This allowance may not be taken into account in computing the survivor’s entitlement under § 2-47, even in the face of a contrary provision in the will of the deceased. Section 2-213 not only removes the properties covered by the allowance from, the demands of creditors, it also removes that property from the deceased’s right of testamentary disposition, the same as § 2-47, and even from distribution of the deceased’s estate under statutes of descent.
As the majority decision deprives the widow of the right to have either money or other property set over to her in accordance with the requirement of § 2-213, it must be assumed the court has determined that her ownership of the homestead property satisfied the allowance mandate of the statute. This amounts to saying that the provision for an allowance to her by virtue of § 2-213 is fulfilled by setting over to and giving the widow property which she already owns, rather than by awarding her property which the decedent has. The effect of this is to imply a curtailment of the widow’s title by the entirety, inasmuch as it indicates that title was imperfect or insufficient unless supplemented by the setting over directed by § 2-213. Of course that conflicts with the principle laid down in Amick v. Elwood, 77 Wyo. 269, 314 P.2d 944. In that case, title to property was attacked because it stemmed from a conveyance of property held by the entireties in which both husband and wife had joined, although the husband was subject to a judgment which was a lien against his properties. It was claimed that the lien of the husband’s judgment creditor could be enforced as against the conveyance evidently on the theory the protection of the homestead exemption law was lost by transfer of the homestead property. Noting that the wife had the right to dispose of the property held by the entirety, with the consent of her husband, this court said, in commenting on Beihl v. Martin, 236 Pa. 519, 84 A. 953, 42 L.R.A., N.S., 555, at 77 Wyo. 278, 314 P.2d 947, “ * * * if she could do so only subject to a judgment against the husband, her rights would be curtailed, and that the law does not allow that.” Consequently, the court held that title to the property passed to the grantee, free and clear of any lien of the husband’s judgment creditor. The principle thus announced was clearly this: The right of a tenant by the entireties cannot be curtailed by the extraneous event of there being a lienable judgment against one of the tenants even though the property was alienated by their joint conveyance.
So, in the instant case, the right of the surviving spouse to the complete title to the homestead property, freed of all previous *480interest of the decedent, is curtailed if it is to be subjected to the allowance provided by § 2-213. It, therefore, seems untenable to insist that this widow’s title by the entireties may be so encumbered by reason of its having been used and occupied as the homestead of the parties during the deceased’s lifetime.
In Ward Terry and Company v. Hensen, 75 Wyo. 444, 451, 297 P.2d 213, 215, this court reiterated the basic law respecting tenancies by the entireties saying:
“ ‘ * * * Under such a conveyance or devise husband and wife, by reason of their legal unity by marriage, take the whole estate as a single person with the right of survivorship as an incident thereto, so that if one dies, the entire estate belongs to the other by virtue of the title originally vested.1 26 Am.Jur. § 66, p. 692.” (Emphasis supplied.)
This can mean but one thing. When one spouse dies, the title or interest of which the deceased was possessed during life does not pass to the survivor. The title or interest which the deceased owned or- possessed simply became nonexistent. It was extinguished as completely as though it never existed. The survivor gained no new or additional title, but merely retained that which she had theretofore owned and possessed from the initial date of conveyance to her and her spouse by the entirety.
The effect of the court’s majority decision is indeed far reaching. Under the majority’s new rule, if the property used and occupied as a homestead by married persons had been the sole property of the wife, and the husband dies, neither the widow nor the deceased’s minor children by a previous marriage may lawfully be entitled to have set over to them any allowance of property, or money, or other property from the estate of the deceased. The same will be true if the homestead property was held in common. We may also expect that where the homestead was in property wherein the deceased owned but a life estate, both the surviving spouse and the minor issue of a deceased’s previous marriage will be deprived of the benefits of § 2-213, although they will no longer have even the right to use and occupancy of the property which was their homestead before the death of the deceased.
If more is needed to question the correctness of the decision, the Wyoming case of In re Bergman’s Survivorship, 60 Wyo. 355, 377, 151 P.2d 360, 368, is called to attention. There the Chief Justice, with the entire court concurring, wrote:
“ * * * A homestead, if the title is in the name of the deceased, is a part of his estate but is set aside as exempt through favor of the statute [§ 2-213, W.S.1957] to the surviving spouse and minor children. * * * ” (Emphasis supplied.)
This obviously recognized that the homestead reference in § 2-213 was to a homestead in the property ozvned by the decedent. The opinion further said respecting tenancies by the entireties:
“ * * * The property becomes the absolute property of the survivor upon the death of a spouse and is not a part of the estate of the latter. * * * ” (Emphasis supplied.)
The opinion of the majority labors the question of a home occupied during marriage as being a homestead in contemplation of our exemption laws, irrespective of whether owned by either or both spouses. This dissent does not question that point, but insists it is foreign to the issue involved.
No authority is offered in support of the opinion which touches the real point to be decided. The decision here must be arrived at solely from a consideration of what our statutes plainly say — not from what may judicially be written into them.
There is no criticism of the majority’s decision respecting the Grabbert Note. The decision of the lower court should otherwise be affirmed.