135 Mo. App. 598 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1909
One James F. Tucker, late of Perry county, died on the —--day of July, 1905, in Perry county, intestate, leaving surviving him his widow, Margaret Tucker, but no children or deseen-
Counsel for appellants has submitted a very readable brief, supplemented by argument at the bar, representing an elaborate disquisition on the philological meaning of the words “dower” and “endowed,” claiming that the latter term, used in section 2943, has no technical meaning, and that Ave must resort to the dictionary to ascertain its usual and commonly accepted meaning. He thereupon cites the lexicographers as defining it to mean — “furnished with a portion,” while “doAver” is defined, primarily, as “endowment; gift”; secondly, “that which a wife brings to her husband in marriage; doAver”; thirdly, “that portion, usually one-third, of a man’s lands and tenements to which his wife is entitled after his death to hold for her natural life.”
AH this is for the purpose of proving that unless the A¥idow files her election under section 2943, and does so within the time required by that section, she loses her right to take one-half of the personal property of her childless husband, as she may do under the second clause of section 2939, that clause providing that when the husband shall 'die without any child or other descendants in being, capable of inheriting, his widow shall he entitled “to one-half of the real and personal estate belonging to the husband at the time of his death, absolutely, subject to, the payment of the husband’s debts.” Section 2943, provides that unless the widow files her election within tAvelve months after the grant of letters testamentary or of administration, “she shall be endowed under the provisions of sections 2933, 2935 and 2936.” Section 2933 relates to dower as at common law — doAver in real estate. Sections 2935 and 2936, speaking somewhat broadly, subject lands under contract by the husband, that is, the husband’s interest in realty, to dower. It is hardly to be supposed, therefore, that when the lawmakers, by section 2943, remitted the widow to dower proper — that is her interest
The judgment of the circuit court is affirmed.