75 Ala. 306 | Ala. | 1883
The material and, in fact, the only question raised upon the record is the validity of the decree of the court of chancery, rendered on the 10th of November, 1874, relieving the appellant from the disabilities of coverture (in the language of the decree), “so far as to vest her with the right to buy, sell, hold and convey real and personal property, and sue and be sued as a feme sole, as provided by act approved April 15th, 1873.” The act referred to, and which constitutes
The petition is brief, averring the residence of Mrs. King, her coverture, the name and citizenship of her husband, and that she was the owner of property, real and personal. Kefer-ring to the act of the General Assembly, the petition then proceeds to “ ask and pray,” that she be declared a free-dealer “ with the right to buy and sell, hold and convey real or personal property, to sue and be sued as feme sole, as provided by an act of the General Assembly,” etc. This is surely a substan-tia], if not a literal compliance with the requirements of the statute. Ashing mid praying, is certainly an expression of her wish, her desire, that she be relieved of the disabilities of cov-erture. There is no other sense in which these words can be taken and interpreted ; to say that they were not the words employed in the statute is not an answer. The statute deals with things not words; with matters of substance, not with forms or formulas. That the prayer is, the wife may be declared a free-dealer, does not indicate that she sought the exercise of a power with which the court was not invested ; the sense in which the term is used, the extent and purposes for which she wished to be made a free-dealer, is apparent from the subsequent words, and these are the words of the statute. The term “ free-dealer,” is rather peculiar to our statutes and decisions, and is always relative; its precise meaning and signification are derived from the statute to which it refers, the matter with which it is connected, or the subject to which it has relation.. The syllabus, or abstract, appended to the section of the Code which authorizes chancellors to relieve married women of the disabilities of coverture, reads : “ Court of chancery may declare married women tree-dealers in term time or vacation.” Yet, the term “free-dealer” is not employed in a general sense, as the equivalent of feme sole ; it is employed in relation to the body of the section, and that clearly defines it. The same term, found in the written consent of the husband accompanying the petition of the wife, must be accepted in the same sense in which it is used in the petition, and, so taking it, as it was taken by the chancellor, and as it was intended it should be taken, it is the consent required by the statute. We are of opinion the decree is valid ; that there was not a want of jurisdiction in the court, to render it. And being valid, tliat it
Let the decree be affirmed.