Marriage, As It Was, As It Is, and As It Should Be: A Plea for ReformBesant, Annie
Philosophy
Marriage, As It Was, As It Is, and As It Should Be: A Plea for Reform
Besant, Annie
Marriage -- Great Britain; Marriage law -- Great Britain
If a woman own land and lease it, then if, during marriage, the husband
reduce it into possession, "as where rent accruing on a lease granted by
the wife _dum sola_ is received by a person appointed for that purpose
during the husband's life," under such circumstances the husband's
"executors, not his widow, must sue the agent" (Lush's "Common Law
Practice," 2nd. ed., p. 27). In a case where "certain leasehold property
was conveyed to trustees upon trust to permit the wife to receive the
rents thereof to her sole and separate use, and she after marriage
deposited with her trustees part of such rents and died; it was held
that her husband might recover the same in an action in his own right.
Such money, so deposited, was not a _chose in action_ belonging to
the wife, but money belonging to the husband, the trust having been
discharged in the payment of the rents to the wife" (Ibid, p. 9 7 ).
Marriage, to a man, is regarded as a kind of lucrative business: "The
next method of acquiring property in goods and chattels is by marriage;
whereby those chattels, which belonged formerly to the wife, are by act
of law vested in the husband, with the same degree of property, and with
the same powers, as the wife, when sole, had over them... A distinction
is taken between chattels real and chattels personal, and of chattels
personal, whether in possession or reversion, or in action. A chattel
real vests in the husband, not absolutely, but _sub modo_. As, in
case of a lease for years, the husband shall receive all the rents and
profits of it, and nay, if he pleases, sell, surrender, or dispose of
it during the coverture; if he be outlawed or attainted, it shall be
forfeited to the king; it is liable to execution for his debts; and if
he survives his wife, it is to all intents and purposes his own. Yet, if
he has made no disposition thereof in his lifetime, and dies before his
wife, he cannot dispose of it by will: for, the husband having made no
alteration in the property during his life, it never was transferred
from the wife; but after his death she shall remain in her ancient
possession, and it shall not go to his executors. If, however, the wife
die in the husband's lifetime, the chattel real survives to him. As to
chattels personal (or choses) in action, as debts upon bonds, contracts,
and the like, these the husband may have if he pleases; that is, if he
reduces them into possession by receiving or recovering them at law. And
upon such receipt or recovery they are absolutely and entirely his own;
and shall go to his executors or administrators, or as he shall bequeath
them by will, and shall not revest in the wife. But, if he dies before
he has recovered or reduced them into possession, so that, at his death,
they still continue choses in action, they shall survive to the wife;
for the husband never exerted the power he had of obtaining an
exclusive property in them. If the wife die before the husband has
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account