Old Sam’s Deed
You have known Old Sam as an honest man for many years. Everyone likes him, even his wife, and he
seems to have grown to like you as his young neighbor. Old Sam says you should buy his tree-filled
creek bottom next to your land so your kids have more room to play. You borrow some money on a ten year note at
the bank. You write him a check for a
very agreeable price and he signs a deed to the five acres. You pay the filing fee and get the deed
recorded.
A couple of years later Old Sam dies and his wife says she
does not want the kids riding motorcycles on her land any more, not even among
the trees on the five acres you bought from Old Sam. She threatens to put up a fence to keep the
kids out. You scream, “Trespass!!” and
she suggests you talk to your lawyer.
How could the widow possibly have any right to tell you what
to do on your own real estate? What does
she know that you do not? Maybe she
knows about Homestead law and of Augmented Estate law in Nebraska.
One rule in Nebraska, designed to protect the family from an
improvident sale of the family home by only one of two spouses, makes Old Sam’s
deed to you void and unenforceable, without the signature of his wife too. A second rule protects a surviving spouse
from being deprived of a fair share of the decedent spouse’s estate by
protecting against gifts of land by the decedent spouse to outsiders.
Your attorney tells you that the widow can make you give, not sell
but give, the five acres back to her.
Your attorney suggests that you talk to her very nicely, and maybe, with
a promise of no more motorcycles and a nice fence and a nice check, she will
sign a second deed for you. “But,” your
attorney says, “Call me next time before you write the check.”
Witte Law Office
6125 Havelock AveLincoln, NE 8507
402-467-5080
glen@wittelawoffice.com
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