Cook v. Lawson

Edward M. Lawson died after having executed a will, in which he devised to his wife, Elizabeth, a life-estate in their homestead, which stood in his name, and a life-interest in his personal property, with remainder to their children, Perry and Mary. The widow remarried and afterward died, leaving as survivors her second husband and her children by the former marriage. The husband claimed an interest in the land and brought partition. The grounds of his claim were that the statute gave his wife one-half the property of the former husband; that she could not be deprived of such share except by…