Case Name: Martin Harmon, ex dem. Samuel Fay et al. against Moses Taft and Seth Cogswell, Tenants
Court: Vermont Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Vermont
Decision Date: 1800-01
Citations: 1 Tyl. 6
Docket Number: 
Parties: Martin Harmon, ex dem. Samuel Fay et al. against Moses Taft and Seth Cogswell, Tenants.
Judges: 
Reporter: Tyler
Volume: 1
Pages: 6–8

Head Matter:
Martin Harmon, ex dem. Samuel Fay et al. against Moses Taft and Seth Cogswell, Tenants.
The deed of a Jeme covert conveying Jaud hela in her own right, must be executed and acknowledged conformably to the lex loci, where the land lies. ,
EJECTMENT for a right of land in Charlotte, to wit, the original right of John Southgate.
Common rule entered. General issue joined and put to the Jury;
Plaintiff’s evidence:
First. Copy of the charter of Charlotte, recorded in the proprietor’s records, dated 24th June, 1762. John Southgate, an original grantee.
Secondly. Deed from John Southgate to Sarah Southgate, dated July 3d, 1762.
Thirdly. Deposition of John Hopkins, proving the' intermarriage of Sarah Southgate with Azariah Dickinson.
Fourthly. A deed from Azariah Dickinson and Sarah his wife, late Sarah Southgate, to. the lessor of the plaintiff, dated the 8th of October, 1773, and acknowledged by both in common form before a Justice of the Peace, Hampshire County, Common wealth of Massachusetts.
Daniel (Shipman, counsel for the tenants,
objected to this last deed.
By common law, a feme covert cannot convey real estate, neither can her husband convey that which is held in the right of his wife.
The conveyance, to be legal, must be predicated upon statute. The plaintiff shews no statute either from New- York, New-Hampshire, or this State, authorising this mode.

Opinion:
Hall, Judge.
By common law a feme covert can convey neither real or personal property. Before this deed can be read to the Jury, it must appear that there was some existing law authorising the conveyance of land by a feme covert in this mode, or that the acknowledgment of this deed is consonant with some statute of this State.
Woodbridge, Chief Judge.
The lex loci where the land is, ought to regulate the conveyance. At the time this deed was executed and acknowledged, this territory was under the jurisdiction of New-York, and the deed, to be operative, ought to have been executed and acknowledged agreeably to the existing laws of that then colony. The deed cannot be read to the Jury.
Plaintiff nonsuited.
Note. In this cause, after the rejection of the deed by the Court, it was moved to introduce it as a lease, conveying the life estate of the husband in the premises,
Sed per Curiam.
It cannot be read for that purpose. Hesitante Hall.
This decision has been since shaken.