78 So. 473 | La. | 1918
Defendant appeals from a judgment refusing to recognize him as entitled to a homestead exemption under article 244 of the Constitution. He owns and occupies a small farm, worth between $500 and $800. His wife died several years ago. His children are all grown and living away from him, and he has no one dependent upon him for support, but he claims that, as surviving spouse, he ia entitled to the exemption under paragraph 4 of article 244 of the Constitution, which reads as follows:
“The benefit of this exemption may be claimed by the surviving spouse, or minor child or children, of a deceased beneficiary.”
In order to recognize defendant’s claim, it would be necessary to interpret this clause of the Constitution as meaning that every widow and widower, by the mere fact of once having been married, would forever be entitled to the homestead exemption though no one were dependent upon her or upon him for support. We do not think that the quoted clause, when construed in connection with the first paragraph of article 244, conveys any such meaning; on the contrary, we believe that the surviving spo;use must be one having a mother or father or a person or persons dependent upon him or her for support, and that its main purpose is to entitle the surviving spouse, having dependents upon him or upon her, to claim the benefit of homestead on property belonging to the com
On the other hand, in the case (No. 22666) of Whyte v. Grant, Sheriff, et al., 77 South. 643,
The judgment appealed from is affirmed.