Keyes

July 22, 1889, M. M. Keyes and Barbara Keyes, his wife, made their promissory note to John Cyrus for seven thousand one hundred and seventy-five dollars, and as security for its payment executed to him a mortgage upon certain lands in Sonoma county. M. M. Keyes died October 17,1889, and his widow Barbara was appointed administratrix of his estate and continued to act as such until August 10, 1891, when her final accounts were settled, and she was discharged *323 from her trust. No homestead had been selected in the lifetime of said Keyes, and on June 30, 1890, the superior court for Sonoma county upon due proceedings had therefor, by its order made that day, set apart as a homestead for the use of the said Barbara certain lands belonging to the estate of said Keyes other than those included in the mortgage, and on the 7th of July a copy of the said order was recorded in the office of the county recorder. The property so set apart as a homestead was community property of the said Barbara and her husband, and he left no minor children surviving him. At the time the land was set apart to her Barbara was residing thereon, and continued to reside there until December 17, 1891, when she…

I dissent upon grounds which are fully stated in my opinion in Estate of Walley, 11 Nev. 260.

The homestead set apart by the probate court goes to the surviving husband or wife freed of all liability for any debt of the deceased spouse; but there is no provision of law exempting it from liability for debts of the survivor, whether contracted before or after the order setting it apart, and nothing therefore to prevent the operation of the general rule prescribed by section 688 of the Code of Civil Procedure.

Nor is it at all necessary in order to subserve the general policy of the law to construe the statute as it is construed in the opinion of the court. When a homestead has been set apart by the probate court to a widow, and thus exempted from the claims of creditors of the deceased husband, if she desires to exempt it from the claims of her own creditors she has only to make a declaration as head of a family, if she has children or other dependent relatives residing with her, in which case it is exempt to the full value of five thousand dollars; or if she has no children or dependent relatives she can, like others similarly situated, secure exemption to the extent of one…