Litchfield enquirer., 1870-03-17

and may transact business in her owl name. Nevertheless. her temporary .inde pendence ceases whenever the husband may choose to resume his marital dnty ant authority. Even while abandoned sh, cannot sell her real estate except upon ar order of court showing total abandon ment for at least three years.
 The husband may compel the wife te give up all her personal property to hin by an application to the court for that pur pose, and she will be imprisoned for con tempt should she refuse to obey such ar order. In the very recent case O 1aerUood vs. Sberoood (32 Conn. 1.l triet in Fairfield county in 1864, the wife wa. imprisoned in the common jail for several months because sbe refused to obey ths order of the superior court commanding her to give up all her personal estate te her husband; she only obtained her libert, upon the legislatures granting her 8 di
 vorce!
 2.-7he ssys's separate property.
 The law regarding tho separate property of married women, which forms so impor' tant a portion of English eqxity juris prudence. has little practical application tt this State. Marriage settlements are al most unknown among us. For long time our courts refused to adopt the practice of the English court of chsncery regarding the separate property of married women except to 8 very limited extent or unless such property was secured by the intervention of q trustee; ani with the appointment of s truste. generally came great restrictions on the
 wifes independent control of the estate SC secured. In fact, almost the only cases regarding separate estates that have found their way into our reports. gre concerning gifts made by husband to wife, or proper. ty over which she has exercised ownership by his permission. We do not recall a single instance in which the wife has sought relief in a Connecticut court of equity against her husband Still. such g cloud of legal dust has been raised over Connecticut law of marriage. by constant reference to this branch of equity jurispru denoe in newspaper discussions, that we feel obliged to attempt brief sketch of it's provisions, and of fhe s.xrss of Con. necticut decisions and legislation regard. ing it; &
 Under the English equity system 6 mar ried woman may exercise almost the full control of the unmarried woman, over her in the following cases: Where by marriage settlement or by the express terms of gift by will or otherwise, prop erty has been conveyed to the sole and sep. arals use of the wife. or where an absolute gift of property Is made to her by the hus. band. she is given, under the apparent ownership of trustee or of the husband, full control and power to manage that property as if she wore unmarried. This result is effected through the intervention of courts of equity or chancery, as they are sometimes called, by which the nominal owner (husband or trustee) will be compel led to make precisely such disposition ol the property as the wife may direct, wheth. CT by way of investment, gift, or sale, and the court will also direct them to pay ell the debts she has contracted on the strength of such property. and to per form all contracts she has made with refer ence to it. h short, they are merely he, agents for certain technical purposes, with out any real power, whatsoever, The usu al reason for appointing a trustee is te avoid the risk of seizure of the ssparat estate by the husbands creditors, to which it would seem to be liable if DO trustee il appointed. or. to avoid the risk of hi. squandering it himself, if he is irresponsi ble. Should there be no trustee appointe the husband will hold the sole and sepa rate estate of his wife as trustee, subject te her direction and complete control as if { trustee had been appointed. It would ap pear. however, that the income of the sep arate property on being paid over by ths trustee, or received by the wife. become. the absolute property of the husband a law. and even in equity he will not be com pelled to account for it unless the wife is living apart from him. and objects to hi receiving it.*
 In most States. recent legislation recog. nizing the rights of married women ha. taken the form of an extension of the En glish equity rules, so as to Ike all tho property of the wife her separate estate The nominal ownership of trustee or hus. band is also dispensed with. and the wife has substantially the same control of he, property after marriage as before. In Connecticut, az we have seen, the course of legislation has been far different; and ou1 law now allows the separate property oi the wife to be attached at law for her sepa. rate debts as we'll as in certain cases for the debts of her husband,f without enlar. ging her control over it.
 The early decisions Of our courts were hostile to the separate property system. In .6sts a% ' f+