Citation Numbers: 55 Ga. 613
Judges: Warner
Filed Date: 1/15/1876
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 1/12/2023
This was an application for dower in a lot of land in Fannin county, the applicant claiming the same as the widow of A. T. Churchhill, deceased. The right of the applicant to dower in the land was contested, and on the trial of that issue the jury, under the charge of the court, found a verdict against the widow’s right to dower in the land. Whereupon she made a motion for a new trial, on the several grounds stated therein, which was granted by the court,, and the contestant excepted.
The court charged the jury substantially as follows, that if Wiece, the contestant, claims title to the land under the sheriff’s deed, the same having been sold as the property of Churchhill, then he is estopped to deny that Churchhill was seized and possessed of the land at the time of his death, and that his widow would be entitled to dower therein as against any lien created by her husband in his lifetime; that if the evidence shows that the land was sold at sheriff’s sale after the death of Churchhill as his property, and the contestant,
If the charge of the court was right., (and we think it was in view of the evidence in the record,) then the verdict was contrary to the charge of the court, and the new trial was properly granted on that ground. The defendant in the'execution, Churchhill, was in the possession of the land at (he time of the first levy thereon by the sheriff, on the 18th of June, 1858, according to his returns; and if Churchhill was the owner of the land at the time of the rendition of the judgment against him, and it was sold as his property after his death, and purchased by Wiece, the contestant, at sheriff’s sale, as the property of Churchhill, he, claiming title to the land under that sale, is estopped from denying that it was Church-hill’s property so as to defeat his widow’s claim to dower therein. There was no error.in granting the new trial.
Let the judgment of the court below be affirmed.