32 Pa. 85 | Pa. | 1858
The opinion of the court was delivered by
At common law the bond of a married woman, either with or without a warrant of attorney to confess judgment thereon, was absolutely void. Of course, a judgment entered upon it was a nullity as against her, for she could give no authority to enter it. Whenever, therefore, such a judgment has been entered, the courts have uniformly, on motion, ordered it to be stricken off from the record: Read v. Jewson, 4 T. R. 362; Dorrance v. Scott, 3 Whart. 309; also, Caldwell v. Walters, 6 Harris 79. In Dorrance v. Scott, it was not only held that a judgment was void, which had been entered upon a bond with warrant of attorney to confess judgment given by a married woman, and in which her husband joined, but it was also ruled that even when a scire facias had been issued upon such a record, and judgment had been obtained thereon, the judgment in the scire facias was no lien upon the wife’s lands. In Caldwell v. Waters, it was held, that a sheriff’s sale of a wife’s land, under a judgment entered upon a bond of a husband and wife, with a warrant of attorney to confess judgment, passed no title to the purchaser.
Nor does the Act of April 11th 1848 remove the wife’s disability, resulting from the marriage relation, to enter into such a contract. It is a mistaken supposition, that the act was intended to take away any of.the safeguards which the law had previously
The plaintiff’s case is not aided by the written consent endorsed on the bond, and acknowledged before a judge of the Court of Common Pleas. That is only available to enable her husband to sell, convey, mortgage, transfer, or encumber her property, not to enlarge her own powers.
This bond was not an authority to. her husband to encumber it, but it was an attempt to encumber it herself.
There was no error, therefore, in the action of the District Court.
The order, setting aside the judgment as to Harriet Keister, is affirmed.