CHAPTER 197.
HUSBAND AND WIFE. - MARRIED WOMEN.
AN ACT to Amend Chapter 87 of the Revised Code of the State of Delaware, Relating to Married Women.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Delaware in General Assembly met:
Section 1. That Chapter 87 of the Revised Code of the State of Delaware, as published in 1915, be and the same is hereby amended, by repealing 3048, Section 16, 3049, Section 17, 3050, Section 18, 3051, Section 19, 3052, Section 20, 3054, Section 22, 3055, Section 23, 3056, Section 24, 3057, Section 25, 3058, Section 26, and 3059, Section 27, and substituting in lieu thereof the following sections, to be known and styled as the respective numbers appear at the beginning of each of said sections:
3048. Section 16. RIGHTS OF MARRIED WOMEN: That the property of a married woman, whether real, personal or mixed, and choses in action which she may have acquired in any manner, and all the income, rents and profits thereof, shall be deemed to be her sole and separate property and she may sell, convey, assign, transfer, devise, bequeath, encumber or otherwise dispose of the sante, and she may contract jointly (including with her husband) or separately, sue and be sued, and exercise all other rights and powers, including the power to make it will, which a femme sole may do under the laws of this State; provided that nothing in this section contained shall be deemed to affect the right of the husband, if he survive his wife, as tenant by the courtesy in the real estate of his wife. Acknowledgments by married women of all instruments relating to or affecting real estate shall be taken as provided in Chapter 92 of the Revised Code of Delaware of 1915.
3049. Section 17. CERTAIN ACTS OF MARRIED WOMEN HERETOFORE COMPLETED, CONFIRMED AND MADE VALID: All sales or other disposition of real estate, mortgages, stocks, or silver plate heretofore made by a married woman and all encumbrances upon her real estate heretofore created by such married woman, and any disposition of the rents, issues and profits thereof, and the interest upon her mortgages or dividends, or other income arising from her stocks, heretofore made by a married woman without her husband's consent, which are otherwise valid and lawful, shall not be invalid and unlawful because of the failure of such married woman to secure her husband's consent in writing thereto, and the same are hereby confirmed and made valid.
3050. Section 18. ANTE-NUPTIAL MARRIAGE CONTRACTS: A man and woman in contemplation of matrimony by a marriage contract executed in the presence of two witnesses at least ten days before the solemnization of the marriage, may determine what rights each shall have in the other's estate during marriage and after its dissolution by death, and may bar each other of all rights in their respective estates not so secured to them, and any such contract duly acknowledged before any officer authorized to take acknowledgments may be recorded in the deed records in the Office of the Recorder of Deeds in any and all counties of the State.
3051. Section 19. CONVEYANCE OF LAND BY MARRIED WOMEN, DESERTED WITHOUT JUST CAUSE; ACKNOWLEDGMENT; CERTIFICATE OF ABANDONMENT; EFFECT OF DEED: Every married woman abandoned by her husband without just cause, and being the owner in her own right of real estate in this State shall have full power to sell or otherwise dispose of the same as effectually to all intents and purposes as if she were a single woman.
Conveyances made in pursuance of this section shall be acknowledged before the Chancellor, Chief Justice, or Resident Judge of the County in which the lands lie; and in addition to the certificate that it is the act and deed of the party signing the same, the Chancellor, Chief Justice, or Resident Judge shall further certify that it had satisfactorily appeared to him that the party executing the same had been abandoned by her husband without just cause.
A deed so executed and certified and recorded in the County in which the lands lie, shall be as good and effectual, to all intents and purposes whatsoever, as if the grantor executing the same were a single woman.
3052. Section 20. MORTGAGE; BECOGNIZENCE; BOND; WHEN MARRIED WOMEN MAY ACT; HUSBAND NOT LIABLE: Where a married woman becomes a purchaser of real estate, she may secure the purchase money, or part of it, by recognizance, bond, mortgage or otherwise, as single women may, and her husband need not be a party nor consent to such act of giving security ; and in such case any such recognizance, bond, mortgage or other obligation or lien shall not be subject to any right or estate in courtesy of the husband of such married woman. Provided, however, that in case of her entering into recognizance or giving bond or mortgage, or king other contract for the payment of the purchase money of such real estate, her husband shall not be liable unless he be a party thereto.
Approved April 21, A. D. 1919.