51 Miss. 835 | Miss. | 1876
delivered the opinion of the court.
The bill was filed by the heirs of Laura Wood, deceased, to :have pronounced void a trust deed which their mother had executed in her life-time on her Mount Hope plantation, and also to have declared invalid a conveyance executed by the trustee at a sale made by him under said trust deed. , The prayer was that both of said instruments be canceled and vacated, and for a restitution of possession to complainants. The chancellor decreed in accordance with the prayer, and defendants, who were the holders of the debt secured by the trust deed and also the purchasers of the land at the trustee’s sale, appeal. The trust deed was executed by Laura Wood jointly with her husband James Wood to C. Rellowes & Co., in 1860, to secure payment of two promissory
'The language of the statute is, “No conveyance or incumbrance for the separate 'debts of the husband shall be binding on the wife beyond the amount of their income.” § 1778 of Code. Under this clause it was held in Viser v. Scruggs, supra, that the property of the wife which had been mortgaged for the husband’s debt might be put in the hands of a receiver until the rents and profits should pay off the debt. Can this be done after the death of the wife, or if done during her life, can it be held by the receiver after her death ? We think not. In the first place, the words used by the statute are “ her income.” It is “ her income ” which may be bound. Can the rents and profits of her property be said to be “ her income ” after her death ? The words seem to imply a living person. After her death, the rents and profits of her property would more appropriately be styled “ the income of her estate.” They would belong either to her heirs or to her personal representatives.
Apart from this verbal construction, we think that grave considerations, both of reason and of policy, would dictate that the liability of her income should cease with her life. If this be not-so, then practically thecorpws of her estate is subjected to her husband’s debt, and this too, in the most unwise and obnoxious manner. Her property placed in custodia legis in the hands of a receiver, must remain there indefinitely, and in cases where the interest on the debt exceeded the income from the property, this-occupancy by the receiver must be perpetual and everlasting-Than this, nothing can be conceived more at variance with the law which exempts the body of her estate from liability to her husband’s debts, and more repugnant alike to the interests of the-state, and to a wise system of jurisprudence.
We are of opinion that the liability of the wife’s income to her husband’s debts, where she has bound her separate property therefor, terminates at her death.
There was no error in the decree below, which is affirmed.