148 Ga. 621 | Ga. | 1918
On the trial of an action for land, brought by Mrs. J. A. Putnai against W. G-. Hickman on August 28, 1917, the evidence for the plaintiff was to the following effect: D. E. Willis died intestate in Colquitt county, in August, 1890, seized and possessed of the land sued for, leaving a widow and their child, the plaintiff, then less than a year old, and no other descendant. There was no permanent administration on his estate. At the December term, 1890, of the ordinary’s court of Colquitt county, temporary letters of administration were granted on the decedent’s estate; at the same term, upon the application of the temporary administrator, appraisers were appointed to “appraise the goods and chattels of D. E. Willis, deceased,” and they were to return an inventory thereof to the ordinary’s office within the time required
1. The grant of a nonsuit was error. Plaintiff,- under the evidence submitted in her behalf, was the sole heir at law of her father, who owned the land at his death, and title therein immediately vested in her. Her title was not divested by any valid year’s support set apart in the land. The proceedings relating to year’s support were entirely nugatory, as they were not in conformity with the statutory requirements. Civil Code, §§ 4041, 4043. No application was made for the appointment of appraisers to set apart and assign a year’s support; no appraisers were appointed for such purpose, and of course no return could be made and recorded, and thus become the judgment of the court. See Watson v. Watson, 143 Ga. 425 (85 S. E. 324). Here there was no order admitting any of the proceedings in reference to a year’s support to record, and none of them were recorded for more than fourteen years.
2. So much of the amendment to the answer as the plaintiff moved to strike set forth the same matter covered by the original answer, and therefore the refusal to strike it was. not error.
Judgment reversed.