36 Vt. 269 | Vt. | 1863
The deceased, Orsamus A* Grant,-died seized, and possessed of two distinct parcels of land situated in North-field, one of which was fifty rods distant from the other, and a ’parcel of land owned by another person was situated between the two. One parcel, upon which was a dwelling-house, outbuildings, and. garden, contained about one and three-fourths acres, and the other contained about twenty and one-fourth acres ; and the deceased, at the time of his death, was occupying the first or smaller parcel for the purposes of a dwelling-house and house lot, and the other .parcel as tillage and woodland in connection with the first parcel. After his decease, his widow claimed in the probate court an assignment of her dower and a homestead out of this property, and that court appointed a committee to set the same out. This committee set 'out for the homestead the whole of the smaller or house lot parcel and a part of the other parcel. The question which the case presents is, whether the last named parcel, being separate and distinct. from' the other, could, in whole or in part, be set out for, or as a part of, the homestead on this claim.- If an affirmative answer can be given to this question, the decree of the probate court accepting and establishing the report of the committee should be affirmed, but otherwise it should be vacated.
The statute in forcfe when this homestead right became vested defined a homestead as consisting of “ a dwelling-house, outJ buildings, and lands appurtenant, occupied as a homestead by a house-keeper, or the head of a -family, to the value of five hundred dollars.” Comp. St. p. 390, § 1. This exemption of a
The judgment of the county court, affirming pro forma the decree of the probate court by which the report of the"'commissioners setting out the dower and homestead in this case was accepted and established, is reversed, and judgment is rendered that said decree be vacated, and that said report be rejected;— and it is ordered that this judgment be certified to the probate court, so that further proceedings may' be had in that court on the claim of the widow for an assignment of her dower and homestead.