, and was using the car for personal purposes, neither
the garageman nor the owner would be responsible for whatever
happened. See _Automobile: Chauffeur_.
=Homestead.=--A legal homestead is the home or residence of a family
land owner, and includes a specific area varying in the several
states. By the more general rule the land must be connected in a
single piece, though in some states the pieces may be distinct. Though
divided by a highway this does not effect a separation, as the land
therein belongs to the owner subject to the public rights to pass and
repass and also use to keep the highway in repair. The peculiarity
about a homestead is, it is protected by law from seizure by the
owner's creditors.
One of the most important questions relating to a homestead is, the
meaning of the head of a family. The term is not limited to a man
having a wife and children. It includes an unmarried man with whom
his widowed sister and children reside; or a man who supports his
mother; likewise an unmarried woman with whom the children of a
deceased sister are living. Nor need they live under the same roof,
the essential thing is the relation and dependence existing between
them. On the death of a husband owning a homestead the right survives
to the widow, and usually to the minor children. Some statutes give
her the absolute estate, others a life interest; in some states she
loses the homestead by a subsequent marriage. In most states the
rights of surviving children end on attaining their majority. In many
states the surviving husband is entitled to the homestead right, even
though there be no children. A husband does not lose his homestead
when his wife withdraws from the family under a decree of divorce.
Non-residents as a rule are not within the privilege of the homestead
laws.
On the dissolution of a marriage by divorce, as the wife ceases to be
a member of the husband's family, she loses her rights to the
homestead. The decree of divorce may, in the dissolution of the
marriage, reserve to her the right, and if she is the owner of the
homestead she may continue to occupy it as one. The mere desertion of
husband or wife by the other spouse will not, in itself, destroy the
character of the homestead although an entire dissolution of the
family will have that effect.
By the federal law every head of a family, or a person twenty-one
years old and a citizen, or intended citizen, of the United States, if
not the owner e
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