50 Ala. 210 | Ala. | 1874
Judge Turner Reavis, a citizen of the county of Sumter in this State, died intestate, in June, 1872, leaving a widow, the petitioner, and an infant child. After
Besides, we do not doubt, that when there are moneys in the hands of the administrator, sufficient to cover the exemption of personal property, the widow may elect to take, or the appraisers may allot to her, a sufficiency of such moneys, in lieu of other personal property. It is not personal property of any particular species which the statute exempts from administration, but personal property in the broadest, largest sense of the term, to the amount of one thousand d ollars. Whatever personal property the administrator may reduce to possession as assets, or is subject to the payment of debts, or is capable of transmission to next of kin, may be exempt. There may be many cases, in which an exemption of money would be more beneficial to the widow, and less injurious to creditors and next of kin, than the allotment of other personal property. No injustice can result from the exemption of money, because the amount exempt is then capable of precise ascertainment, —
A rule nisi is awarded to the probate judge of Sumter county, requiring him to appear on Thursday of the third week of the present term, and show cause, if any he can, why a peremptory mandamus should not issue as prayed for by petitioner.