Court Opinion

ID: 9808265
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 20:31:45.847062+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:10:32.755426
License: Public Domain

Clark, J.,
dissenting.
The feme defendant contracted for the erection of a building on her land, in writing, with written assent of her husband and privy examination duly taken. Subsequently, she accepted an order drawn by the contractor upon her, the acceptance being in writing, with written assent of her husband and privy examination. If this constitutes a valid, binding obligation upon the feme covert for the betterments on her land, then a mechanic’s lien can be. filed to secure it. If, with all these formalities, a mar-*292tied woman can not get work done or obtain credit, no> one dare trust her or do' work for her, and she is a pariah as to all business transactions.
It is true we are referred to Flaum v. Wallace, 103 N. C., 296, for the doctrine that there must be a “charge in equity” (whatever that may be) on the feme covert’s land, but with the utmost and most diligent research, both bench and bar have been unable to discover any statute or previous decision which requires such “charge,” and this Court has distinctly repudiated that doctrine. Brinkley v. Ballance, 126 N. C., at page 396.
The statute enacted by the proper law-making authority, Code, Sec. 1826, provides that a married woman can make a contract affecting? her real estate “with the written assent of her husband.” The plaintiff certainly ought to have the benefit of the law of the land. Several recent statutes show that such is still the mind of the law-making power, such as the statute allowing the statutes of limitations to run against a married woman, allowing her to vote her stock in corporations, and the recent act providing that a married woman is liable for improvements put upon her property, even when she makes no contract, but merely stands by and sees the work done without exception. Independent of the statute, the Constitution gives a married woman the same control over her property “as if she remains single,” and responsibility always goes with the power to- control.