13 S.W.2d 8 | Ark. | 1929
This case was submitted to the circuit court on appeal from the probate court on the following agreed statement of facts:
"(1) The plaintiff was the wife of the decedent at the time of his death, and he left one child, a boy, James Perry Childers, his only heir at law, who is now about ten years of age. (2) That said Perry Childers, before his death, was a soldier in the World War, and, as such soldier, carried a policy of insurance in the War Risk Insurance Department of the United States Government, for $10,000. (3) That Perry Childers departed *1032 this life intestate about the 13th day of October, 1918. That the insurance was payable as follows to the following beneficiaries: To Dess Pollock, then Dess Childers' wife, one-half; to James Perry Childers, his son, one-fourth; and to his mother, Mrs. James Childers, one-fourth. (4) That Mrs. Childers, his mother, died upon the 19th day of February, 1927, and this plaintiff and said son, James Perry Childers, survived her. (5) That at the time of her death Mrs. James Childers had not drawn nearly all of the payments provided for her in said policy, and the United States Government paid the balance of said payments, $1,650, to James Childers, as administrator of the estate of Perry Childers, deceased. (6) That plaintiff was married to Wib Pollock four or five years after the death of her husband, the said Perry Childers, and continues to draw one-half said insurance in monthly payments. (7) That Mrs. James Childers, mother of the deceased, held a life estate only in one-fourth of said insurance, and at her death the commuted value of the remainder, amounting to $1,650, reverted to the estate of the said Perry Childers, deceased. (8) The question to be decided by the court is whether or not the estate reverted to the estate of Perry Childers, deceased, is such an estate as would entitle plaintiff to a dower interest therein."
Appellant is the administrator of the estate of Perry Childers, deceased, and appellee is his widow. The court held that appellee is entitled to dower in this part of decedent's estate. We agree that this is correct. At common law the widow took dower in the real estate of her husband only, but the term `real estate' included both corporeal and incorporeal hereditaments. R.C.L., p, 578. Under our statute, 3535, C. M. Digest, "a widow shall be entitled, as part of her dower, absolutely and in her own right, to one-third part of the personal estate, including cash on hand, bonds, bills, notes, book accounts and evidences of debts, whereof the husband died seized or possessed." This court has held that a widow is entitled to dower in a gift causa mortis of the husband. *1033
Hatcher v. Buford,