Court Opinion

ID: 9694895
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 17:59:44.841687+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:06.699544
License: Public Domain

On Application for Rehearing
MERRILL, Justice.
Appellee has favored us with a scholarly study of the homestead laws of Alabama in brief on application for rehearing and urges that our opinion as to the meaning of the second sentence of § 661, Tit. 7, Code 1940, as amended, is not sound. We are still of the opinion that the Legislature intended by that provision that the widow and minor children of a decedent should have a life interest in the homestead of a decedent zvithout limit as to value, when the homestead did not exceed 160 acres in area and where there were no debts, or if there were debts or claims, they were satisfied from sources other than the homestead.
There is one new matter to which we feel that we should reply. Appellee contends that our holding in the instant case is contrary to the holding in Roberts v. Roberts, 263 Ala. 517, 83 So.2d 348, 349, and “can in no way be reconciled” with it. We think the distinction between the cases is found in the third paragraph of the opinion in the Roberts case which records that the estate consisted in part of “about 281 acres of farm lands in Houston County.” Obviously, more than 160 acres were involved and the opinion shows that sections of the homestead statutes, other than § 661, were involved, discussed and applied. We are unable to see the conflict or the irreconcilability in the two cases.
The application is overruled.
LIVINGSTON, C. J., and LAWSON and COLEMAN, JJ., concur.