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AN ACT to amend and re-enact article three of an act,
entitled "An act relating to husband and wife, and entitled
'Husband and Wife,'" approved May sixteenth, one thousand eight
hundred and ninety-three. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of
Kentucky: That article three of an act, entitled "An act relating
to husband and wife, and entitled 'Husband and Wife,'" approved May
sixteenth, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-three, be, and it is,
amended and re-enacted, so as the same shall read as follows: § 32. Marriage
shall give to the husband, during the life of the wife, no estate or
interest in the wife's property, real or personal, owned at the time or
acquired after the marriage. During
the existence of the marriage relation the wife shall hold and own all
her estate to her separate and exclusive use, and free from the debts,
liabilities or control of her husband.
No part of a married woman's estate shall be subjected to the
payment or satisfaction of any liability, upon a contract made after
marriage, to answer for the debt, default, or misdoing of another,
including her husband, unless such estate shall have been set apart for
that purpose by deed of mortgage or other conveyance; but her estate
shall be liable for her debts and responsibilities contracted or
incurred before marriage, and for such contracted after marriage, except
as in this act provided. § 33. 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, receive and recover in her own name the rents
thereof, and make contracts for the improvement 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 as chattel mortgages are
required by law to be 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 10 creditors or purchases. § 34. Husband
and wife may sell and convey her lands or chattels real, but the
conveyance must be acknowledged and recorded in the manner required by
the chapter on conveyances. § 35. The
husband shall not be liable for any debt or responsibility of the wife
contracted or incurred before or after marriage, except to the amount or
value of the property he may receive from or by her, by virtue of the
marriage, but shall be liable for necessaries furnished to her after
marriage. § 36. When the
husband abandons the wife and lives separate and apart from her, or
abandons her without making sufficient provision for her maintenance, or
when he is confined in the penitentiary for an unexpired term of more
than one year, or when he becomes permanently deranged in his mind, the
wife, by judgment of a court of equity, may be empowered to sell and
convey, by her own deed, any of her real estate freed as to it and its
proceeds from any claim of her husband: Provided, That in case of
insanity he shall have been adjudged a lunatic by a court of competent
jurisdiction. § 37. After the
death of either the husband or wife, the survivor shall have an estate
for his or her life in one third of all the real estate of which he or
she, or any one for his or her use, was seized of an estate in
fee-simple during the coverture, unless the right to such dower or
interest shall have been barred, forfeited or relinquished; and the
survivor shall have an absolute estate in one-half of the surplus
personalty left by such decedent. § 38. If the
wife voluntarily leave her husband and live in adultery, or if the
husband voluntarily leave his wife and live in adultery, the party so
offending shall forfeit all right and interest in and to the property
and estate of the other, unless they afterwards become reconciled and
live together as husband and wife. § 39. If the
husband, during the coverture, was seized in law of the fee-simple of
any real estate, then the wife, if she survive him, may have dower
therein, although the husband may not have had actual possession
thereof. § 40. The wife
shall not be endowed of land sold, but not conveyed by the husband
before marriage, nor of land sold, in good faith, after marriage, to
satisfy a lien or incumbrance created before marriage, or created by
deed in which she joined, or to satisfy a lien for the purchase money;
but if there is a surplus of the land or proceeds of sale after
satisfying the lien, she may have dower out of such surplus of the land
or compensation out of such surplus of the proceeds, unless they were
received or disposed of by the husband in his lifetime. § 41. A
conveyance or devise of real or personal estate, by way of jointure, may
bar the wife's interest in the property and estate of her husband; but
if made before marriage, without her consent, or during her infancy or
after marriage, she may, within twelve months after her husband's death,
waive the jointure by written relinquishment, acknowledged or proved
before, and left with, the clerk of the county court, and have her dower
or share of his estate as herein provided.
When she so demands and receives her dower, or such share of his
estate, the estate conveyed or devised in lieu thereof shall determine
and revert to the heirs or representatives of the grantor or devisor. § 42. Where the
wife is lawfully deprived of her jointure, or any part thereof, and not
by any act of her own, she shall have indemnity therefor out of her
husband's estate. § 43. The wife
shall be entitled to one-third of the rents and profits of her husband's
dowable real estate from his death until dower is assigned, and she
shall hold the mansion-house, yard, garden, the stable and lot in which
it stands, and an orchard, if there is one, adjoining any of the
premises aforesaid, without charge therefor, until dower is assigned
her. § 44. Whether
the recovery is against the heir or devisee or purchaser from the
husband, the wife shall be endowed according to the value of the estate,
when received by the heir, devisee or purchaser, so as not to include,
in the estimated value, any permanent improvements he has made on the
land; against the heir or devisee or his alienee, her claim for rent
shall not exceed five years before action, and against a purchaser from
the husband shall only be from the commencement of the action, and in
either case it shall continue up to final recovery.
If, after action brought, the widow or tenant dies before
recovery, the rent may be recovered by her representative, and against
his heirs, devisees and representatives. § 45. The wife
shall not be barred of dower by reason of any judgment rendered by
default or collusion against the husband, if she would be entitled to
dower had there been no such judgment; nor shall an heir be bound by any
collusive or ex parte assignment of dower to the wife, except so
far as she shows herself to have been justly entitled thereto. § 46. Where the
lands are not severally held by different devisees or purchasers, it
shall not be necessary to assign dower out of each separate portion, but
an equitable allotment may be made in one or more parcels in lieu of the
whole. § 47. If the
husband held land by executory contract only, the wife shall not be
endowed of the land, unless he owned such equitable right at his death. § 48. If real
estate be conveyed or devised to husband and wife, unless a right by
survivorship is expressly provided for, there shall be no mutual right
to the entirety by survivorship between them, but they shall take as
tenants in common, and the respective moities be subject to the
respective rights of the husband or wife as herein fixed, with all other
incidents to such tenancy. § 49. Divorce
from the bond of matrimony shall bar all claim of either husband or wife
to the property, real and personal, of the other after his or her
decease. § 50. Whenever
a married woman has become a confirmed lunatic, the circuit court of the
county in which is situated land belonging to the husband of such woman
may, upon the petition of her husband, adjudge the sale and conveyance
of the inchoate right of dower of such married woman.
The wife and her committee, if she have one, shall be made
defendants to said action; if she have no committee, the court shall
appoint an attorney to defend for her, to whom the court shall make a
reasonable allowance to be paid by the husband.
A description of said land shall be given in said petition, and
the husband's evidence of title filed therewith.
If the court be satisfied by the proof that the wife is a
confirmed lunatic, it may adjudge the sale and conveyance of her
inchoate right of dower in said land; and if she has a committee, the
court may direct that he unite with the husband in the deed conveying
said land; or, if she has no committee, the court shall appoint a
commissioner, who shall unite with the husband in such conveyance. A deed so executed shall pass such wife's inchoate right of
dower. Before any judgment
pursuant to this section shall be rendered, the husband, with at least
two good sureties, shall execute, before the court, a covenant to the
Commonwealth for the benefit of the wife, to be approved by the court,
that she shall be paid the value of her right of dower in said land
should such right thereafter become complete. § 51. The wife
of an infant husband, or of a husband judicially declared an idiot or
lunatic or imbecile, if she be of the age of twenty-one years, or if
not, with the approval of the circuit court, on such terms as it may
deem equitable, may unite with his guardian or committee, or with the
commissioner of the court, in the conveyance of his real estate, so as
to release her prospective right of dower, when a sale and conveyance
thereof are ordered to be made by the guardian of committee, or by the
commissioner or other officer of the court.
A wife not of full age may also be permitted by the circuit court
to unite with her adult husband in the conveyance of his real estate
without terms, or on such as may be deemed equitable, so as to release
her prospective right of dower. If,
in judicial proceedings to sell the real estate of an infant husband, or
of a husband judicially declared an idiot, imbecile or lunatic, his wife
is made a party defendant, and by her answer, and on privy examination
in open court, or by a judge of a court wherein such proceedings are
pending, or by a commissioner appointed by the court to take the same,
she consents to a sale of the property, free from her prospective right
of dower, either without terms or on terms by her designated, the court
may, if it deems the terms of such consent equitable, order the sale of
such property, free from her prospective right of dower, upon the terms
of consent proposed by such wife. § 52. A married
woman, if she be of sound mind and twenty-one years of age, may dispose
of her estate, by last will and testament, subject to the provisions of
this act. § 53. The
provisions of this act relating to the wife's dower, or interest in the
husband's real estate, shall apply in all cases, so far as may be, to
the husband's interest in the wife's real estate. § 54. All laws
and parts of laws inconsistent with the provisions of this act are
hereby repealed.
Approved March 15, 1894.
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