Costs. Who may select homestead, value of. Head of family defined. 1259. The execution creditor must pay the costs of these proceedings in the first instance; but in the cases provided for in Sections 1253 and 1254 the amount so paid must be added as costs on execution, and collected accordingly. 1260. Homesteads may be selected and claimed: 1. Of not exceeding five thousand dollars in value by any head of a family; 2. Of not exceeding one thousand dollars in value by any other person. аш 1261. The phrase, "head of a family," as used in this Title, includes within its meaning: 1. The husband; 2. The wife; 3. Every person who has residing on the premises with him or her and under his or her care and maintenance either: First-His or her minor child, or the minor child of his or her deceased wife or husband; Second-A minor brother or sister, or the minor child of a deceased brother or sister; Third-A father, mother, grandfather, or grandmother; Fourth-The father, mother, grandfather, or grandmother of a deceased husband or wife; Fifth-An unmarried sister, or any other of the relatives mentioned in this section who have attained the age of majority and are unable to take care of or support themselves. NOTE.-Stats. 1851, p. 296, Sec. 5; 1862, p. 519, Sec. 3. selection. 1262. The husband and wife, or either of them, or Mode of other head of a family, in the selection of the homestead, must execute and acknowledge, in the same manner as a grant of real property is acknowledged, a declaration of homestead. Am 1263. The "Declaration of Homestead" must Declaracontain: 1. A statement of the facts that show the person making it to be the head of a family; 2. A statement that the person making it is residing on the land, and claims it as a homestead; 3. A description of the land; 4. An estimate of its actual cash value. 1264. NOTE. The declaration may include more than one fot of land, if they are contiguous.-McDonald vs. Badger, 23 Cal., p. 393. tion of homestead. tion must recorded. The declaration must be recorded in the Declaraoffice of the Recorder of the county in which the land be is situated. which is held. 1265. From and after the time the declaration is Tenure by filed for record, the land therein described is a home- homestead stead; and if the declaration was made by a married person, the land is thereafter by the spouses held in joint tenancy, and on the death of either of the spouses, and subject to no other liability than such as exists or has been created under the provisions of this Title, it descends to and the title at once vests in the survivor. NOTE.-Estate of Buchanan, 8 Cal., p. 507; Gee vs. McQuade vs. Whaley, 31 Cal., p. 526; Baker vs. Babel, 36 Cal., p. 11; Estate of Wixom, 35 Cal., p. 320. CHAPTER III. HOMESTEAD OF OTHER PERSONS. SECTION 1266. Mode of selection. 1267. Declaration of homestead. Mode of selection. Declaration of 1268. Declaration must be recorded. 1269. Effect of filing for record the declaration of homestead. 1266. Any person other than the head of a family, in the selection of a homestead, must execute and acknowledge, in the same manner as a grant of real property is acknowledged, a "Declaration of Homestead." NOTE.-The Act of March thirtieth, eighteen hundred and sixty, (Stats. 1860, p. 87), in relation to homesteads of persons not heads of families, provided a cumbrous and expensive system for the selection of such homesteads. The Commissioners could see no reason for making a distinction in this respeet between the two classes of homesteads, and therefore substituted the provisions of this Chapter for those of the Act of eighteen hundred and sixty. 1267. The declaration must contain everything homestead required by the second, third, and fourth subdivisions Effect of filing for of Section 1263. 1268. The declaration must be recorded in the office of the County Recorder of the county in which the land is situated. 1269. From and after the time the declaration is record the filed for record, the land described therein is a home declara TITLE VI. WILLS. CHAPTER I. Execution and Revocation of Wills. III. General Provisions Relating to Wills. CHAPTER I. EXECUTION AND REVOCATION OF WILLS. SECTION 1270. Who may make a will. 1271. Monomaniac incompetent. 1272. Will, or part thereof, procured by fraud. 1273. Separate property of married women. 1274. What may pass by will. 1275. Who may take by will. 1276. Written will, how to be executed. 1277. Definition of an olographic will. 1278. Witness to add residence. 1279. Mutual will. 1280. Competency of subscribing witness. 1281. Conditional will. 1282. Gifts to subscribing witnesses void. Creditors compe tent witness. 1283. Witness who is a devisee, and who would be entitled to share of testator's estate if no will, entitled to share to amount of devise. 1284. Will made out of this State. 1285. Will not duly executed, void. 1286. Subsequent change of domicile. 1287. Republication by codicil. 1288. Nuncupative will, how to be executed. 1289. Requisites of a valid nuncupative will. 1290. Proof of nuncupative wills. 1291. Probate of noncupative wills. 1292. Written will, how revoked. 1293. Evidence of revocation. 1294. Revocation by obliteration on face of will. 1295. Revocation of duplicate. 1296. Revocation by subsequent will. 1297. Antecedent not revived by revocation of subsequent will. Who may make a will. SECTION 1298. Revocation by marriage and birth of issue. 1299. Effect of marriage of a man on his will. 1300. Effect of a marriage of a woman on her will. 1301. Contract of sale not a revocation. 1302. Mortgage not a revocation of will. 1303. Conveyance, when not a revocation. 1305. Revocation of codicils. 1306. Afterborn child, unprovided for, to succeed. 1307. Children or issue of children of testator unprovided for by his will. 1308. Share of afterborn child, out of what part of estate to be paid. 1309. Advancement during lifetime of testator. 1310. Death of devisee, being relation of testator, in lifetime of testator, leaving lineal descendants. 1311. Devises of land, how construed. 1312. Will to pass rights acquired after the making thereof. 1270. Every person over the age of eighteen years, of sound mind, may, by last will, dispose of all his estate, real and personal, and such estate not disposed of by will is succeeded to as provided in Title VII of this Part, being chargeable in both cases with the payment of all the decedent's debts, as provided in the CODE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE. NOTE.-Stats. 1850, p. 177, Sec. 1. Women may make wills.-Walters vs. Cullen, 2 Brad., p. 354. What estate passes by will.-See Norris vs. Harris, 15 Cal., p. 226; Panaud vs. Jones, 1 Cal., p. 488. Dr. Taylor's rule, as laid down in Med. Jur., p. 658, (ed. 1861), is, by Redfield on the Law of Wills, p. 95, Sec. 13, Sub. 5, said to be as reliable as any for testing the mental capacity of a person. It is as follows: "If a medical man be present when the will is made, he may easily satisfy himself of the state of mind of the testator by requiring him to repeat from memory the mode in which he has disposed of the bulk of his property. Medical men have sometimes placed themselves in a serious position by becoming witnesses to wills under these circumstances without first assuring themselves of the actual mental condition of the testator. It would always be a good ground of justification if, at the request of the witness, the testator had been made to repeat substantially the leading provisions of his will from memory. If a dying or sick person (or any other one) cannot do this without prompting or suggestion, |