Women in Kentucky - Reform

A Woman's Right to Her Property

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky:

                A married woman may take, acquire and hold property, real and personal, by gift, devise or descent, or by purchase, and she may, in her own name, as if she were unmarried, sell and dispose of her personal property.  She may make contracts and sue and be sued, as a single woman, except that she may not make any executory contract to sell or convey or mortgage her real estate, unless her husband join in such contract; but she shall have the power and right to rent out her real estate, and collect, and receive and recover in her own name the rents thereof.  A gift, transfer or assignment of personal property between husband and wife shall not be valid as to third persons, unless the same be in writing, and acknowledged and recorded; but the recording of any such writing shall not make valid any such gift, transfer or assignment which is fraudulent or voidable as to creditors or purchasers.

                Approved March 15, 1894

Source: Kentucky Acts (1894), 177.