3 Wyo. 445 | Wyo. | 1891
The following facts appear in the petition of the plaintiff in error: She was married to James France, February 7,1887, and be died intestate, August 21, 1888, leaving her, his widow, surviving him. March 16, 1888, James France, being then insolvent, executed and delivered to the defendants in error a deed of assignment, under the laws of Wyoming territory, of all of his property not exempt from execution, including realty of considerable value, situate in the county of Carbon, for the benefit of all of his creditors. The assignees have siuce been in the possession of all of the assigned property. Mrs. France did not join in the deed ' of assignment, and brought suit in the district court of Carbon county for the admeasurement and assignment of dower in the realty so assigned, and for an accounting of all the rents, issues, and profits thereof since the death of her husband, to the end that she may have her dower rights therein, which she claims. The assignees, defendants in error, demurred to this petition on the grounds that the court was without jurisdiction to grant the relief prayed for, and because the petition does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause-of action. The demurrer was taken under advisement by said district court, the Honorable Samuel T. Coen, toen associate justice of the supreme court of Wyoming territory, presiding as judge of said court, and the demurrer was thereafter sustained by the district court. Mrs. France excepted thereto, and failing, and not desiring to plead further, judgment was rendered for the defendants in error, and she prosecutes proceedings in error in this court.
The plaintiff in error in the court below and in this court and in the brief and argument of her counsel asserted her right
Dower and tenancy by the curtesy were abolished at a very early day in the territory of Wyoming by an act entitled “An act regulating descent and distribution of property,” approved December 10, 1869, which was incorporated with slight amendments in the Revised Statutes of Wyoming for 1887, and is found in section 2221 thereof, in the following language: “Dower and the tenancy by the curtesy are abolished, and neither husband nor wife shall have any share in the estate of the other, save as herein provided. ” It is by the terms of section 18 of this Ed-munds-Tucker act that plaintiff is entitled to dower, if at all, as it is conceded that she is not entitled thereto under any law of the territory of Wyoming, Although not mentioned in the brief of counsel, we deem it proper to state that the legislative assembly of Wyoming passed a statute, approved March 9, 1888, which, among other things, made provision for the release of dower and all rights of the wife in the lands of the husband, mainly in cases of homestead, and providing a simple method of procedure where the wife is insane. The statute does not confer nr recognize the right of dower, but, on the contrary, expressly disclaims such a purpose. The closing sec tion of the statute is as follows: “Nothing herein contained shall, of itself, be deemed to confer upon any married woman any dower interest in the lands of the husband ; but whenever and so long as any such right of dower exists by virtue of the laws of congress or otherwise, the same may be relinquished, released, or barred, as herein provided.” Sess. Daws Wyo. 1888, c. 75, p. 167. It is necessary, therefore, to review the history of the legislation of congress germane to the general object and purview of the act, to ascertain the mischief sought to be remedied by this legislation, and the reasons that impelled congress to enact the various laws to check, restrain, and punish the practice of polygamy. The first attempt of congress in this direction was the enactment of the anti-polgyamy act, entitled “An act to prevent the practice of polygamy in the territories of the United States and other places, and disapproving and annulling certain acts of the legislative assembly of the territory of Utah, ” approved July 1,1862. This act has three sections. The first defines the offense of bigamy, and prescribes the penalty therefor, and by the express terms of the section the law applies to the territories of the United States, and to any other place over which the United States have exclusive jurisdiction. This section became section 5352 of the Revised Statutes of the United States. Section 2 annuls an ordinance of the provisional government of the so-called “State of Deseret,” incorporating the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, validated by an act of the legislative assembly of the territory of Utah, and all other acts and parts of acts of said legislative assembly which “establish, support, maintain, shield, or countenance polygamy.” Section 3 limits the value of real property to be held in any territory of the United States by any religious corporation or association to the sum of $50,000. This last section became section 1890 of the Revised Statutes of the United States. This anti-polygamy act remained in force as originally enacted for nearly 20 years, when it was amended by what is known as the “Ed-munds Law,” entitled “An act to amend section fifty-three hundred and fifty-two of the Revised Statutes of the United States, in reference to bigamy, and for other purposes,” approved March 22, 1882, (22 U. S. St. at Large, c. 47, p. 30.) This act contains nine sections, but only the first and second sections are amendatory of the original act. Section 1 amends section 1 of the anti-polygamy act, (section 5352, Rev. St. U. S.;) and section 2 has a saving clause as to offenses committed prior to the passage of this amendatorj act. The other sections, except the last which is numbered 9, relate to the defin ing of the offense of unlawful cohabita: tion, the method of procedure in the courts in the prosecution of the cognate offenses of polygamy and unlawful cohab itation, the qualification of jurors, a provision for the amnesty of offenders con victed under prior laws, legitimates the issue of Mormon marriages born prior to January 1, 1883, disqualifies polygamists and bigamists as voters, and makes them ineligible to hold office orany place of pub-
The next law on this subject is found in the act, which took effect without the signature of the president, March 3, 1887, which is familiarly known as the “Ed-munds-Tucker Act, ” the title to which is quoted supra. It has 27 sections, and the subject-matter of the act is much broader than the title. It is not wholly amenda-tory of the Edmunds law of March 22,1882, but contains many other matters foreign to the object and scope of the act as expressed in the title, which does not contain the clause “for other purposes,” which is inserted therein only as part of the title of the Edmunds law. The act is a mosaic of legislation, and its loose arrangement is a powerful argument in favor of the wise provision of the constitutions of many of the states, which does not appear in the federal constitution, that no bill, except general appropriation bills and bills for the codification and general revision of the laws, shall be passed containing more than one subject, which shall be clearly expressed in the title. Grouping the sections in some sort of system, it will be observed that 16 sections, (6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24,25, and 27,) by the express terms of each, respectively, apply only to the territory of Utah. In the above-indicated order they repeal laws of Utah providing that prosecutions for adultery can only be commenced on the complaint of the husband or wife; enlarge the powers and jurisdiction of the court commissioners appointed by the supreme and district courts of Utah; enlarge the powers of the United States marshal for Utah, and his deputies; repeal laws of Utah giving illegitimate children capacity to inherit from the father; repeal laws of Utah conferring jurisdiction on probate courts, or judges thereof,'other than matters of administration of the estates of decedents, and the guardianship of persons and property of infants and those of unsound mind; repeal laws of Utah incorporating the Perpetual Emigration Eund Company; dissolve that corporation, and prohibit the reincorporation thereof, or of associations of like character; require the attorney general of the United States to institute proceedings in the supreme court' of Utah to carry into effect the provisions of section 15, and to dispose of the property of said corporation mentioned therein; repeal the act of the legislative assembly of Utah, and of the so-called “State of Deseret,” incorporating, continuing, or providing for the Mormon Church; dissolve said corporation, and require the attorney general to institute proceedings to wind up its affairs, etc.; provide for the appointment of judges of the probate courts in Utah by the president, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, and annul laws of Utah providing for the election of such judges; repeal laws of Utah authorizing women to vote, and {.rohibit their voting in that térritory; repeal laws of Utah providing for the numbering and identifying of the ballots of electors at any election; provide for the redistricting of Utah, and the apportionment of representation in the territorial legislature, and that none but citizens of the United States shall vote at any election in said territory; continue in force the provisions of section 9 of the Edmunds law of March 22, 1882, referring to the registration of voters and the elections in Utah, until by suitable legislation of the legislative assembly thereof the provisions of the law are re-enacted and approved by congress; prescribe qualifications for voting and holding office in Utah» and a test oath for voters, officers, and jurors therein; abolish the office of territorial superintendent of district schools, created by the laws of Utah, and require the supreme court of that territory to appoint a commissioner of schools, with the same powers and duties exercised by such superintendent, and with additional powers and duties, prescribed by the act; and suspend the laws of Utah for the election and appointment of such officer last named; and repeal the militia laws of Utah. Six sections of the act (1, 2, 3, 4, 10, and 18, the dower section) do not express where they apply in direct .terms, but it may be easily gathered from the context of the original and amendatory acts that all but the last section named,. 18, are applicable to all of the territories. Sections 3, 4, and 5 enlarge the number of offenses that may be prosecuted and punished, and were enacted, doubtless, to. shut off not only polygamy, where proof might be difficult to obtain, but all acts, of unlawful sexual intercourse, as these-sections define the cognate offenses of adultery, incest, and fornication, and prescribe penalties therefor. Section 10 is in
This leaves for consideration the dower section, numberedl8, which does not state where it applies. It was undoubtedly borrowed from the laws of New York relating to the dower of widows, as appears from the 17th Congressional Record 49th Cong. pt. 1, p. 457, (proceedings of the senate of J anuary 6,1886.) Senator Edmunds, the author of the senate bill, recognized this source of the dower section, as he stated, on moving certain amendments thereto, that paragraph a of said section, (then section 25 of the bill, — senate bill 10,) was, he believed, “taken verbally from the laws of the state of New York, which are very much like the laws of other states.” A comparison of the New York statute with sectionlS, of the Edmunds-Tueker act discloses that but few changes were in-grafted on the New York law. The words, “unless sheshallhave lawfully released her right thereto,” in paragraph a
The division of legislation by different sessions of congress separated by many years does not vary the rule; nor does the division of legislation into different acts interfere with it. It is contended that sections which do not have within themselves a limitation of their application apply “ throughout theentire jurisdiction over which congress may legislate, ” and that sections 3, 4, and 5 of the Ed-munds-Tucker act do so apply, because not so limited. We have already indicated our views on that point, but we may say further that we do not consider it a safe rule to follow in the construction of congressional legislation. A better reason may be found why these sections3,4, and 5 apply in all ofthe territories (not throughout the entire jurisdiction over which congress may legislate) than the reason given in the general language of the sections. Why should each section specify the extent or limit of its application? Where a lim
But we may decide this question upon broader grounds, that appear to us to be conclusive. At the time of the passage of the Edmunds-Tucker law there were eight territories of the United States, viz., Arizona, Dakota, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Montana alone had dower, and it had been abolished by statutes that had stood for many years in Dakota, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming. Comp. Raws Utah 1876, § 1022, found in section 2530, Comp. Laws 1888; Comp. Laws Dak. 1887, § 3402; Rev. St. Idaho, c. 3, tit. 2, §§ 2493-2512, Revision 1887; Rev. St. Wyo. 1887, § 2221. In
In Washingtonitseemsthatthe husband cannot incumber or sell the community real estate unless the wife join in the deed or other instrument of conveyance by which it is conveyed or incumbered ; and upon the death of the husband or wife the survivor has one-half of the community property, freed from all but the community debts, and the other half is subject to the testamentary disposition of the husband and wife, subject to the community debts. In Idaho the husband has management and control of the community property, with the like absolute power of disposition (other than testamentary) as he has of his separate property or estate; but such disposition does not extend to the homestead occupied or used by the husband or wife as a residence. In Arizona the husband only may dispose of the community property during coverture. In all of these seven territories where dower was abolished, or where community property was substituted for it, the most liberal provisions exist as to homestead rights, and the consent of the wife must be had to sell or incumber the homestead, the value of which ranges from $1,000, in Washington, to $5,000, in Idaho. The widow is given a large share of her husband’s estate where he dies intestate. Where there is a surviving child or children she is given a moiety of the estate, in some of these jurisdictions; in others, one-third; and, in the event of no issue surviving the deceased husband, she has even a larger share of the estate; so that in these territories she was dealt with far more graciously than at theeommon law. Rev. St. Ariz. 1887, §§ 1460, 2100-2102; Comp. Laws N. M. 1884, §§ 1411-1414, 1422; Comp. Laws Dak. 1887, Sj§ 2594, 3401, 3402: Code Wash. 1881, §§ 342-348, 2400-2417, and Laws 1887-88; Rev. St. Idaho, §§ 2493-2512, pp. 307-309, and Id. pp. 363-366, 606-609, 645-649; Comp. Laws Utah 1876, §§ 700-732.
In Wyoming the homestead can only be sold or incumbered with the consent of the wife, she being required to join in the mortgage or deed; and the right of homestead is to the extent of $1,500, the proceeds upon the sale thereof being exempt from execution or attachment, as well as the homestead itself. The homestead, with a considerable amount of the property of the decedent, is 'set apart to the widow, and does not pass into administration. If the husband die intestate, the widow receives one-half of the estate if there be a surviving child or children, or the descendants thereof; and if there be none, all of it, if the same does not exceed in value $10,000; and, if above that, amount, she receives three-fourths of the estate, and the other heirs named in the act one-fourth. Rev. St. Wyo. §§ 2063, 2064, 2122, 2780, 2789. It may be true that in Wyoming, and probably in some of the other territories existing at the time of the passage of the Edmunds-Tucker law, a profligate husband might dispose of, by will, his entire property, except the homestead, and thus leave the widow without means; but such could not be the casein Washington or Idaho, and probably in other of the seven territories named. There the right of community property vesting in the wife could not be the subject of testamentary disposition. It is incredible that congress, knowing all these laws, could have intended to confer alesser right on married women in those territories which provided more generously for them than the Edmunds-Tucker law. Its anxiety was to protect the first or lawful wife of Mormon or plural marriages, and this appears plainly in the report of the conference committee of the senate and house on the various bills, as a paragraph added to the dower section was stricken
The law of Utah on the subject of distribution of, and the right of succession to, the estates of deceased persons at the time of the passage of-theEdmunds-Tuckerlaw was as follows: “Sec. 25. Illegitimate children and their mothers inherit in like manner [as legitimate] from the father, whether acknowledged by him or not: provided.it shall be made to appear to the satisfaction of the court that he was the father of such illegitimate child or children.” Comp. Laws Utah 1876, § 677. This act was declared valid and binding, and an illegitimate child was allowed to inherit his share of his deceased father’s estate, by the decision of the supreme court of the United States in the case of Cope v.Cope, 137 U. S. 682, 11 Sup. Ct. Rep. 222; it being held that the Edmunds-Tucker law expressly saved such rights by the proviso to the eleventh section thereof. There was no such act in any other territory, and it seems clearto us that this dower section was aimed solely at the condition of affairs existing in Utah. Congress did not surely, while legislating to protect the lawful wife in Utah, intend to supplant the beneficen t provisions of the laws of those territories which had with a free hand bestowed the right of community property upon the lawful wife. It did not intend to strike down any of the rights which married women possessed there; and to grant this to be true is to concede that the law does not apply, and was never intended to apply, to Wyoming, as it must apifiy to all of the territories or to Utah alone. The abolition of dower in the territories where the law of community property did not prevail was probably caused by a desire to> remove all restraint from alienation, except in the territory of Utah, where illegitimate children and their mothers wére allowed to inherit, and where the practice of plural marriage was covertly upheld and boldly recognized in the statutes.
The Wyoming law was borrowed from Colorado, whereit is found on the statute-books to-day, and was followed by a more valuable gift than the right abrogated, as the innovation was condoned by granting to the widow a larger share in the estate of her in testate husband than was bestowed by the common law, and by enlarging her rights as a feme covert, so circumscribed by the common law.
If the position be taken that the aetcon-ferring dower did not repeal the laws relating to community property where they had sway, it will readily be seen that such legislation would have been a fruitful1 source of litigation, an absurd attempt to ingraft the dower right of the common law upon the unfriendly and alien root of the civil law, and to give to the widow a disproportionate share in her husband’s realty, — a position that need but to be stated to show its absurdity. Congress must be presumed to have known the status of all this diverse legislation in all of these jurisdictions at the time of the enactment of the Edmunds-Tucker law. A statute is always construed with reference to the intent of the legislative power; and to arrive at that intent the courts always first undertake to ascertain the mischief which the legislaturehad in view, and which they desired to correct.
An examination of all these statutes relating to the practice of polygamy shows that the purpose of congress was to destroy it in the territory of Utah, where it was chiefly intrenched. U. S. v. Crawford, supra. It did not intend to upset the laws of seven jurisdictions where polygamy had not gained such a foothold, or to throw into them an apple of discord, to be fought over in the courts. It had wisely provided in its legislation regarding certain of the territories that the laws passed therein should be submitted to congress, and, if disapproved, the same should be null and void. Rev. St. U. S. § 1850. It provided further, that in all of the territories a copy of the laws and journals of the legislative assembly, within 30 days after the end of each session
We cannot extend the application of this dower section to embrace this jurisdiction in common with others, without being against reason and precedent. It is true that the supreme court of the state of Montana, in the case of Chadwick v. Tatem, 23 Pac. Rep. 729,
It has been held in a recent case before the supreme court of the United States that in all cases of ambiguity, the eontem-
having been of counsel in kindred cases, and announcing in open court his disqualification, under the provisions of section 6 of article 5 of the constitution of this state, the Honorable Richard H. Scott, judge of the district court of judicial district No. 1, was called in by the remaining judges of this court, and sat with them in the hearing of this cause.
Section 18, par. a: “A widow shall be endowed of third part of all the lands whereof her husband was seised of an estate of inheritance at any time during the marriage, unless she shall have lawfully released her right thereto. ”