DocketNumber: No. 145
Citation Numbers: 55 Ohio Law. Abs. 388
Judges: Hornbeck, Miller, Wiseman
Filed Date: 3/21/1949
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 7/21/2022
OPINION
Submitted on motion of defendants-appellants for an order of diminution of the record. It is claimed that the bill of exceptions which has been filed, through accident or error, does not contain all of the evidence submitted to the trial
The court orders the bill of exceptions remanded to the trial court for any correction which the trial court considers proper. Sec. 11572-a GC.
Counsel will draw the proper entry.
LIBERTY FOLDER COMPANY, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. ANDERSON et, Defendants-Appellants.
Nos. 145, 146. Decided August 5, 1949.
OPINION
The amended petition in this case alleges that the defendant C. R. Anderson, while an officer and director of the plaintiff corporation, embezzled various sums of money in the aggregate of over $300,000.00; that with such embezzled funds the defendant purchased several farms in Shelby County, Ohio, which he now claims to own. An accounting of the embezzled funds is sought and that the farms so purchased with these funds be declared to be held in trust for the plaintiff. The petition further prays that any inchoate dower interest claimed by the defendant, Mary J. Anderson, the wife of C. R. Anderson, be barred as to such lands so purchased with embezzled funds. Both of the defendants have answered denying the allegations contained in the petition and Mary J. Anderson has filed a cross-petition in which she asks that her inchoate dower interest in the said lands be protected and preserved.
“A spouse who has not relinquished or been barred of it shall be endowed of an estate for life in one-third of all the real property of which the consort was seized as an estate of inheritance at any time during the marriage, but all such dower interest shall terminate and be barred upon the death of the consort except:
(a) To the extent that any such real property at any time during the marriage was conveyed by the deceased consort, the surviving spouse not having relinquished or been barred of dower therein; and
(b) To the extent that any such real property at any time during the marriage was encumbered by the deceased con
In lieu of such dower interest as terminates and is barred pursuant to the provisions of this section, a surviving spouse shall be entitled to the distributive share provided by the statute of descent and distribution.
All dower interest shall terminate and be barred upon the granting of an absolute divorce in favor of or against such spouse by a court of competent jurisdiction within or without this state.
Wherever dower is referred to in any other section of this act (§10500-1 to §10512-25 GC), it shall mean the dower to which a spouse is or may be entitled by the provisions of this section.”
This section abolished all dower rights except those falling under the exceptions noted. These rights, we think, were retained subject to the same interpretation as under §8606 GC. The last sentence in the above section (b) defines the dower interest of the consort. It will be noted that only the interest of the surviving spouse is defined. This must clearly indicate that the interest vests only after the death of the consort. The same rule was applicable under the common law and under all statutes previously enacted in this state. In McArthur v. Franklin, 16 Oh St 193, it was held that the right of dower did not accrue to the wife in any form until the death of the husband. See also 14 O. Jur. Sec. 61, p. 673. We are of the opinion that Mary J. Anderson at this time has no vested right of dower in the land under consideration and therefore cannot claim the land in payment of an expected right. Just what her interest in this land is we are not required to pass upon and could not, for it has not been determined whether or not the land is being held in trust for the plaintiff by the defendant, C. R. Anderson. If it is declared to be trust property, it is apparent that the wife can
In Dick v. Bauman, 73 Oh Ap 107, at page 109, it is said:
“While the Probate Code Act of 1932 enlarged the share of a surviving spouse in the real estate of the one predeceased in lieu of the former dower, it placed no new restraints upon the rights of one in life to dispose of his or her property, and only preserved to the survivor a vested dower estate in any lands conveyed during the marriage in which such survivor had not relinquished or been barred of dower.” (Emphasis, ours.)
We are in accord with the ruling of the trial court and the judgment is ordered affirmed.