DuBois v. Coen

Citations

• 100 Ohio St. (N.S.) 17

Syllabus

<p>Husband and, wife act — Title as aid to construction — Power of wife to contract — Section 7999, General Code — Legal relations cannot be altered, when — Section 8000, General Code — \Legal relations\ defined — Post-nuptial agreement void, when —Dower and distributive share released — Liability on note executed under contract.</p> <p>1. In order to ascertain the meaning of doubtful terms in an act, recourse may be had to the title of the act as an aid in construing such terms. The purpose of the husband and wife act of March 19, 1887 (84 O. L., 132), as shown by its title, was “To define the rights and liabilities of husband and wife.” Among other rights and liabilities brought within the scope of the act was the liability of their respective estates to respond to dower and distributive share.</p> <p>2. Section 7999, General Code, of that act, eliminates the contractual restriction’s that fettered the wife at common law and gives to her the same freedom of contract which the husband may have. But in transactions' between themselves both are subject to the equitable rules controlling persons occupying confidential relations.</p> <p>3. -Section 8000, General Code, of that act, is a limitation imposed on the right of contract between themselves, in that they may not “alter their legal relations” except by the method and to the extent therein stated.</p> <p>4. The term ,“legal relations” used in the act comprises not only the purely marital relations existing between them but also the property provisions which the law gave to each upon the death of a consort.</p> <p>5. A husband and wife living together cannot alter their legal relations by a post-nuptial agreement contracting away the dower rights and distributive share provided for each of them under the act aforesaid.</p> <p>6. A husband and wife living together agreed in writing that, for the sum of $25,000, evidenced by five promissory notes given by the former to the wife, the latter would release all of her in