## Facts

- Betty Snyder died testate owning Florida homestead real property.
- Her will devised the homestead to her adult granddaughter, Kelli Snyder, and also left Kelli the residue after debts, expenses, and specific bequests.
- Betty was not survived by a spouse or any minor child; she was survived by an adult son and an adult granddaughter.
- The estate’s personal representative sought to treat the homestead as part of the probate estate and sell it to pay creditor claims, administration costs, and specific bequests.
- The parties agreed the property qualified as homestead; the dispute was whether the constitutional exemption from forced sale “inured” to Kelli as devisee.

## Issues

1. Whether Florida’s constitutional homestead exemption from forced sale inures to a lineal descendant devisee who would not be the actual intestate heir at the decedent’s death when there is no surviving spouse or minor child.
2. Whether “heirs” in Article X, section 4 of the Florida Constitution is limited to the actual intestate taker(s) or includes the broader statutory class of potential intestate heirs.

## Decision

- The Florida Supreme Court answered the certified question “yes” and quashed the district court’s decision.
- The Court held the homestead exemption from forced sale inured to Kelli Snyder, and the homestead could not be sold to satisfy creditor claims, administration costs, or to fund specific bequests.
- The Court rejected the view that the exemption follows a devise only if made to the person who would actually inherit under intestacy at death.

## Legal Principles

- Florida homestead protections are remedial and must be liberally construed to preserve the family home against creditors.
- When a decedent is not survived by a spouse or minor child, the decedent may devise homestead property, and the forced-sale exemption may accompany the devise.
- For purposes of Article X, section 4’s phrase that the exemption “shall inure to the surviving spouse or heirs,” “heirs” is not confined to the actual intestate heir(s) determined at death.
- In this context, “heirs” includes any person within the class of potential intestate takers identified by the intestacy statute (section 732.103), even if that person would not receive the property in an intestate distribution in the decedent’s actual family configuration at death.
- Conditioning homestead creditor protection on identifying the eventual “actual” intestate heir at death would create unreasonable estate-planning consequences and would conflict with the protective purpose of the homestead provision.

## Conclusion

The court held that, absent a surviving spouse or minor child, a decedent’s homestead may be devised with its constitutional forced-sale exemption to any member of the intestacy-heirs class, including a grandchild who would not be the actual intestate taker at the decedent’s death.


Snyder v. Davis, 699 So. 2d 999 (Fla. 1997)