In the case of Bell v. Bell in 1900, the United States Supreme Court was asked to determine whether a widow could claim her deceased husband's estate if she had previously abandoned him and their children. The court ruled that under Tennessee law, which applied in this case, a woman who voluntarily left her husband and lived apart from him for two years without any intention of returning forfeited her right to his property upon his death. This decision upheld previous rulings by lower courts denying Mrs. Bell's claim on her late husband's estate.

The dissenting opinion for the case of Bell v. Bell is not readily available in public records, making it difficult to provide a summary. The Supreme Court cases from this era often do not have detailed documentation or transcripts like modern cases do. Furthermore, many older cases such as this one may not even have had formal dissenting opinions written and recorded if they were unanimous decisions or if the justices who disagreed did not choose to write a separate opinion. Therefore, without specific information about the justice who dissented and their reasoning in this particular case, providing an accurate summary is impossible.