Coleman v. Coleman

The defendant elected not to take his distributive share in fee in his wife’s estate “by releasing his estate by the curtesy and his homestead right” (R. L., c. 359, s. 13) and therefore retained his homestead right (R. L., c. 260, ss. 1, 2) and an estate by curtesy as “at common law.” R. L., c. 359, s. 9; Riel v. Press, 70 N. H. 334. If a literal reading of the statute (R. L., c. 410, ss. 1, 25) permits partition between life tenants and remaindermen, we are bound by the construction placed upon it in 1923 in Brierley v. Brierley, 81 N. H. 133, 137, that there may be partition “only by…