Case ID: edw-ch_1/html/0349-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "The Vice-Chancellor.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

In the matter of the petition of Lane, &c.
    The court cannot compel a husband who has married a woman having a dower right, nor the female either, to join in a deed releasing it.
    
      May 1, 1832.
    Under this petition, the real estate of an infant was directed to be sold. The amount of the widow’s right of dower had been calculated by the master. She had married again, but lived separate from her then husband, one James Caherty. He refused to consent to the sale or to join his wife in a conveyance, unless she would consent “ that the money to be paid in lieu of “ dower should be taken by him or enough of it to discharge “ all his debts.”
    The special guardian, by petition, now suggested these and also the wife’s having no resource save this dower right, and the depreciation which would take place in the price of the estate if the parties were not ordered to join in the deed. And he prayed, that the said James Caherty and wife should be compelled to join, in order to protect the rights of the infant and make the title in a purchaser more complete, or, in default, the said James Caherty stand committed until the further order of the court.
    Mr. James R. Whiting, for the petitioner.
   The Vice-Chancellor.

I cannot interfere. The statute never contemplated a compulsive release of dower. It can only be released by consent. If the widow had refused, the court could not have compelled her; and, therefore, cannot compel her present husband to join with her in such a release.

Application denied.