104 Ky. 77 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1898
delivered the opinion op the oouht.
The appellant, L. S. Mitchell, and his wife, Barbara, were married in 1887. The appellee, Susie Mitchell, the issue of their marriage, was born November 24, 1889. In 1889 the land which is the subject of this controversy
At common law, as soon as a child of the marriage was born alive, the husband had the right to hold the wife’s land during his life, although the wife died without leaving issue. 2 Bl. Comm. 126. This is such a familiar principle, it is unnecessary to call attention to numerous decisions of courts announcing it as a common-law doctrine. At the time the appellant and his wife were married, and at the time she acquired the land, the General Statutes were in force. Section 1, art. 4, c. 52, Gen. Stat., reads as follows: “Where there is issue of the marriage born alive, the husband shall have an estate for his own life in all the real estate owned and possessed by the wife at the time of her death, or of which another may be then seized to her use. Such estates shall, however, be subject to the debts of the wife, whether contracted before or after marriage.” This statute' is declaratory of the common law, except as hereinafter stated. At common law the husband, on their marriage was given an estate in the land of his wife during her