Singleton v. Huff

• Decision Date: 31 July 1873
• Citation: 49 Ga. 582
• Parties: ELLEN SINGLETON et al., plaintiffs in err0r. v. WILLIAM A. HUFF, defendant in error.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

49 Ga. 582

ELLEN SINGLETON et al., plaintiffs in err0r. v. WILLIAM A. HUFF, defendant in error.

Supreme Court of the State of Georgia

(Atlanta, July Term, 1873.)

Homestead. Year's support. Administrators and executors. Before Judge Robinson. Jones Superior Court. October Adjourned Term, 1872.

This case arose upon a rule against R. P. Cook, sheriff of Jones county, issued at the instance of William A. Huff, requiring said officer to show cause why he should not pay over to said Huff the principal, interest and costs due upon an execution in favor of said movant against one Leroy Singleton. The answer of the sheriff set up substantially the following facts:

The execution was levied upon two hundred and fifty acres of land, and pending the advertisement, the defendant died. On the first Tuesday in May, 1872, said property was sold for the net amount of $443 33, which he has retained in his hands under a notice from Ellen Singleton, the widow of the deceased, claiming the same as a year's support allowed her under the statute in such cases made and provided. Theaforesaid land was all the property of which said defendant *died seized and possessed. The appraisers appointed by the Court of Ordinary awarded to said Ellen Singleton the sum of $500 00 as a year\'s support, to be paid out of the assets of said estate. The award has been excepted to by Huff, and the issue thus formed is still pending, undetermined, before the Court of Ordinary. Prays that the rule may be discharged.

The case was submitted to the Court upon the answers of the sheriff and the following additional facts: That previous to the death of Leroy Singleton, Ellen Singleton, his wife, applied for and had set apart to her a homestead of realty and personalty, according to the Constitution and Act of 1868; that this homestead was allowed her in March, 1872, and that the defendant, Leroy Singleton, her husband, died in April, 1872; that said Leroy Singleton died pending the advertisement, and before the sale of the land levied upon, but after the levy and seizure by the sheriff; that, at the time of the sale, there had been no administration upon his estate.

Pending the litigation, Ellen Singleton was made a party.

The Court ordered the rule made absolute against the sheriff. To this decision Ellen Singleton and the sheriff excepted.

Lyon & Irvin, by W. A. Lofton, for plaintiffs in error.

Blount & Hardeman, for defendant.

TRIPPE, Judge.

The wife of Leroy Singleton, in March, 1872, applied for and had set apart for her a...