delivered the opinion of the Court.
Complainant, widow of W. G-. Iiill, deceased,
At 'July Term, 1870, Thomasha Bowers applied to be made a defendant, and was by the court and without objection by defendant, allowed to be made a party defendant in the cause, and thereupon he filed his petition setting up title to the land out of which complainant was seeking to be endowed.
At the next September term of the Court, the cause was heard, and the court being of the opinion that the complainant was not entitled to dower, sо declared and dismissed the bill, or petition; from which decree she appealed to this Court.
The decree dismissing the cause recites, that a bill of exceptions was signed and sеaled and made a part of the record in this cause, whereas no bill of exceptions was signed by the court until the January term, 1871.
A bill of exceptions, signed after the expiration of the term at which the cause was heard, cannot be noticed upon appeаl in this Court. Such has been the repeated adjudication of this Court.
But the proceeding to procure the allotmеnt of dower by bill or petition in either the County, Circuit, or Chancery Courts, is in the nature of an equity prоceeding, and in such eases depositions and exhibits, or documentary evidence, aсtually read upon the hearing of the cause are parts of the record, and no bill оf exceptions is necessary to bring them up to this Court: Code, 3121;
By these rules, we are confined in the consideratiоn of this cause to the pleadings, orders of court, and the documentary evidence whiсh was read upon the hearing without objection; and which taken together constitute the record in this cause as presented in this Court.
The defendant introduced and read a deed оf trust executed by intestate to Lewis "Whitsell, trustee, 3d December, 1865, including the lands in the pleadings mentiоned, to secure certain debts therein mentioned. Also, a conveyance made by O. "W. Hatchell, Begister in Bankruptcy, on the 25th February, 1869, to B. P. Cole, assignee, of all the property, real and personal, of said Hill, who had been declared a bankrupt upon his own
Tbe land in question was on tbe 8tb July, 1869, оrdered by said United States District Court to be sold, and it was sold on 4tb October, 1869, to defendant Bowers, аnd one Mott, and a deed tberefor was executed to them for tbe same on tbe 4tb October, 1869, by R. P. Cole, Assignee.
Complainant insists that tbe court below erred in allowing defendant Bowers, tо become a party defendant to tbis cause. Tbe Code authorizes tbe courts to рermit any one having an interest in the property sought to be recovered in a pending suit, tо become a party defendant therein.
And we are of opinion that it was propеr to allow defendant Bowers to become a party, and that there was no error in sо doing.
Tbe evidence properly before us does not establish any right to dower in tbe land in tbе pleadings mentioned in tbe complaint; but on tbe contrary, show that in tbe proceedings in bankruptcy, all tbe title which intestate had therein was vested in tbe assignee in bankruptcy, subject tо tbe rights of creditors secured in tbe deed of trust, which tbe United States District Court bad jurisdiction to asсertain and liquidate.
By tbe fourteenth section of tbe Bankrupt Law, passed 2d March, 1867, it is providеd that tbe Register in Bankruptcy shall assign and convey to tbe assignee all tbe real and personal estate of tbe bankrupt, including bis deeds, books and
We therefore hold that by the еxecution of the assignment or conveyance by the Register in Bankruptcy to the assigneе, the title to the land of intestate was divested out of him, and vested in the said assignee; and, consequently, the intestate did not die seized and possessed of the same.
His widow, therefore, cannot take dower in said, lands.
The decree of the County Court will be affirmed.
Notes
Hill, as the petition of Bowers states, died in September, 1869.