Hess v. Wims

Robert H. Dudley, Justice.

Appellants challenge the constitutionality of the Arkansas laws that allow a widow, but not a widower, to take against a will and to receive dower interests, statutory allowances and homestead rights.

Mary Hess and Jean Morton, the appellants, and the decedent Hoyt Wims, were the only three children of their parents. When their mother died, Jean Morton was appointed administratrix, and the mother’s Mississippi land was sold. The proceeds were given to Hoyt Wims to purchase 57 acres in St. Francis County, where the children had grown up, and their father was to be…