23 Mo. 561 | Mo. | 1856
delivered the opinion of the court.
The ante-nuptial contract does not constitute a legal bar of dower within the provisions of our written law on this subject. No estate in things real or personal is thereby vested in the intended wife pursuant to the statute, so as to constitute it a legal jointure. The whole rests on agreement, giving the wife a right to demand the things stipulated for, but vesting in her no
In the present case, the plaintiff shows in her petition a legal title to dower, and then, for the purpose of procuring a decision upon what she supposes to be the defendant’s case, she states the marriage contract, accompanied with averments of its non-fulfilment on the part of the husband. Upon this the defendant demurs, and thereupon the judgment of the court is in effect that this unfulfilled agreement, under the circumstances stated in the petition, constitutes of itself, without any thing further, a bar of the wife’s dower in favor of mere volunteers.
We think otherwise, and therefore reverse the present judgment, and remand the cause. The defendant will then have an