Court Opinion

ID: 9755112
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 20:25:41.267069+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:02.723383
License: Public Domain

Hammond, J.,
filed the following opinion, concurring in the result:
Mr. Justice Cardozo, in comparing unfavorably the appeal and challenge of the work of a Justice of the Supreme Court with that of a Judge of the Court of Appeals of New York, said that in the Supreme Court, many of the opinions require the interpretation of statutes, which no man can make interesting. The Chief Judge has done as much as any man could in this respect. I think, however, that as a result some of the holding of the opinion or at least its implication is unnecessary and may be harmful.
The result reached by the majority is compelled by the language of Code, 1951, Art. 93, Sec. 329, which *470says 'that if nothing passes by the will of the decedent to- the surviving spouse, she' is not- barred, whether or '• hot she renounces, and spells out that she takes a stated share of the land as an heir — and not - dower— and a stated share of the personal estate.. Since it is. conceded that the widow in this case did not elect or seek to elect dower, either under Art. 46, Sec. 4 or under Art. 93, Sec. 325, the case was completely controlled, as I see it, by Art. 93, Sec. 329 and nothing more need have been said.
The Court, however, says that “* * * it seems clear that Section 4 of Article 46 can and does apply in cases of testacy as well as of intestacy of decedent spouses.” This conclusion is unnecessary to. the decision of the case and at least to a degree is, I think, wrong. Sec. 4 of Art. 46 says that if a surviving spouse is to take dower, he or she is to file an election to that effect within six months of the death of the other spouse. On the other hand, Sec. 325 of Art. 93 gives a right to elect dower where'the devise or bequest in the will would, be .a bar, within a period ending thirty days after the expiration of notice to creditors, and, in addition, under Sec. 326 of Art. 93, the time for renunciation may be extended by the court for a further period of six months. If the effect of the opinion of the Court is to say that where there is a will which leaves nothing to the surviving spouse, an election to take dower must be made within six months from the date of death, the opinion has answered a question that need not have been decided and reached what seems to me the wrong answer.
However the matter may have been between 1916 and 1924, it seems clear that after the passage of Chapter 223 of the Acts of 1924, amending then Sec. 311, now Sec. 325, of Art. 93, election to take dower, where there was a will which devised property in lieu of a dower, was and is made under Art. 93 and not under Art. 46. By Chapter 348 of the Acts of 1922, then Sec. 302, now Sec. 325, of Art. 93 was amended so that if the election were for dower and the legal share of personal estate, or *471of the legal share of both real and personal estate, the surviving spouse would be entitled respectively to dower if asked for or to such legal share of real and personal estate “as she or he would have been entitled to in case of intestacy.” Defects were soon apparent in the statute as passed in 1922, and in a report dated November 1,1923 to the President of the Bar Association of Baltimore City, the Committee on the Amendment of the Law pointed out some of these as follows: “* * * Moreover, the draftsman of the act of 1922, chapter 348, in seeking to combine the election between (1) the benefits conferred by the will, and (2) the legal share of dower or thirds, with the new election provided for by the act of 1916, chapter 325 (article 46, sections 1 to 4 of the Annotated Code), seems to have overlooked the fact that the last-named election, i. e. between (1) dower, and (2) the new, statutory, absolute share in real estate, may have to be made where there is no will.” Miller, Construction of Wills, p. 844, Note 1. In other words, it might have been necessary under the Acts of 1922 for election to have been made under both Art. 46 and Art. 93. As a result of the Committee’s recommendation, the Legislature passed Chapter 223 of the Acts of 1924, which spelled out, as Sec. 325 now does, what share the renouncing spouse took in both real and personal property; clearly only one election was and is necessary and that under Art. 93.
There seems no valid reason, particularly since it is not necessary to the decision of the case, to say that If a spouse is, in effect, left something by will, although an insubstantial amount, he or she nevertheless may have a year or more to elect dower under Art. 93, whereas, if he or she is left a nominal amount, or nothing, election must be made within six months of death.