Litchfield enquirer., 1878-05-30
Married Women's Property.

ried woman shall be heldby her to hersole and separate use.-Session statutes. 1878, page 300. The foregoing statute, only two lines in length, makes very great change in the prop erty rights of marr1ed women not affected by the statute of last year. That law only applies to marriages solemnized after the passage of l the act. This statute reaches all cases where l property accrues to any married woman after the 25th of April 1878, whether by deed, will, distribution, or in any other manner. Before speaking of the legal rights of women under this statute, it may be well to refer briefly to the condition of the rights she now enjoys at common law, and by various statutes passed since 1849.
 The property rights of Connecticut marred women are of four different grades, which have grown more and more liberal with the advance of time and of liberal ideas. .
 1. The personal property which accrued to married women before 1S49 became the hus- bands absolutely. In her real estate the hus- band had an interest during their joint lives in all cases. Should living issue ever be born, the husband became entitled, by ''curtesy," to the use of his wifes land during his own life, even though he outlived both wife and child ren.
 3. By the act of 1849 and subsequent stat utes the wife was given a reversionary interest in her personal property, the husband holding it merely as trustee and having only an estate during his life therein. The wife's reversienary interest is very indifferently protected by g right of application to the court of probate, against the husband, for bond to prevent the squandering of her property, and, in certain cases, for his removal from control of it as trustee. His interest in her real estate remains substantially as at common law.
 All property which has accrued to married women between 1849 and April 25, 1878, comes under this head, except real estate bought with the avails of their personal services, and except property reached by the act which went into effect on the 20th of April, 1877.
 3. The next grade of married women's prop erty rights is the separate property" system. This has grown out of the practice which has long prevailed in wealthy English families of requiring marriage settlements to protect the wife's property against the exorbitant powers given the husband over it at common law This system has the sanction of what are term courts of Equity, and has been extended, in most of the states of this Union, to all the wifes property. In this state, however, there has been little liberality of this kind till the pass age of the law reprinted at the head of this ar ticle. Henceforth the separate system will ap- ply to all property hereafter acquired by wo- men who were married before the 20th of April, 1877
 4. The fairest married woman's property act we have ever seen, is that passed by our legis- lature of last year, and which went into effect on the 20th of April, 1877. It emancipates the married woman from all the tramnels of the common law as regards her control of her own property and places the marriage relation, and the rights and duties of husband and wife, on footing of justice and equality utterly un- known to the common law and to the older Connecticut statutes. Unluckily this act could not be retroactive, and applies only to marria- ges contracted after the 20th of April, 1877, and to marriages contracted before that time where the wife is emancipated by written and recorded agreement with her husband. As all the property to be hereafter acquired by married women is to be controlled either by the act of TT or by-t that of '79, we have heard frequent inquiry regarding the respective in- terests of husband and wife in the same The act of 1877 explains itself better than we can explain it. We will venture, however, to sum- marize it's provisions briefly as follows: The wife has as full coHtrol of her property, and as full power of making contracts and ex- ecutng deeds, as if she were still single. Though the husband is primarily liable for the support of the family, both are held bound for articles that have been used for the support of the family In case either dies having made a will, the survivor is nevertheless entitled to the use of a third of the property of the de- | ceased for life, whatever may be the provis- ions of the will ; if there is no will, the survi- vor holds the third Gf there are no children, half) absolutely.
 It would take much more space than is left at our disposal to give any complete idea of the separate property system created by oul statute of this year. We may state generally, however, that the wife has full control of hel separate personal property, and over the in come of her separate real estate but she can not deed her real estate without her husband joins in the decd. She is liable on all con
 property, for labor on the same, and for sup
 plies thereto but she is bound by no genera
 contract on a consideration havingn no reference
 to her separate estate, unless such contrac
 contains special provision binding her sepa
 rate property In short her range of independ
 ent action is narrowed strictly to the contro
 and management eff her separate estate. Be
 yond that, she remains under the full disabili
 ties of the common law.
 In the disposal of deceased wifes separat
 property strange and utterly irrational dis l tinction occurs. The surviving husband take his curtesy, or use for life, of all her separat real estate, but has no successory right what ever in her separate personal property (BGld acin vs Carter, F Conn 201). It may b , doubtful whether he can take any interest eve
 in his deceased wife's real estate, should it b otherwise disposed of by the will our law em
 powers her to make.
 Would it not be mere prudent, as we'll a just, for husbands and wives affected by a
 the varieties of law above detailed to plac
 themselves within the provisions of the act c 1877? All that is needed te effect this is . short agreement in writing, to be placed o ? the records of the town where they reside A recent biographical sketch shows that tt \ eccentricities of John Randolph, of Roanok' F were largely due to intemperance. A gentl e man who knew him we'll says:
 S ''From the first time I ever saw MT. Ral O dolph to the last-say from about 1908 or till his death-he drank very hard, gre,