45 Me. 484 | Me. | 1858
The opinion of the Court was drawn up by
By R. S., c. 44, § 2, a demand must be made upon the tenant in possession, to assign dower, before an action can be maintained for its recovery. It is the duty of the tenant, thereupon, to assign dower in the premises in which it is demanded, if the demandant be thereto entitled. To enable him to do this, the demand must contain a description of the premises. But all that is required, says Wilde, J., in Atwood v. Atwood, 22 Pick. 283, “is that the description of the land should be such as to give notice to the tenant to what land the demand referred.”
The demand in the present case is most vague and indefinite. It embraces all lands of which the husband was seized during coverture, and of which the tenant is now seized, without describing what or where those lands may be. The tenant, to know of what lands dower was demanded, must first ascertain when coverture commenced and ended, and whether his title to any lands of which he is in possession accrued between those dates. It is, substantially, a general demand of dower in all lands of which she is dowable. “ A demand of dower in all lands of which the husband was seized during coverture,” says Wilcox, J., in Fulton v. Fulton, 19 N. H., 168, “ or of all lands in which she had a right to dower, would not probably be sufficient.”
Neither is the indefiniteness of the demand aided by refer
As the demand, neither in terms nor by reference, contains any sufficient description of the premises in which dower is claimed, the demandant must become nonsuit.
Plaintiff nonsuit.