Gardner v. Maroney

Citations

• 95 Ill. 552
• 1880 Ill. LEXIS 209

Syllabus

<p>1. Conservators of insane married women—of the power to appoint—and of 'the sale and conveyance of estates. The statute of 1845 relating to the “appointment of a conservator of an insane or distracted person having an estate, real or personal,” and the statute of 1853 relating to “the sale of real estate of lunatics or distracted persons,” applied to insane married women, as well as others, and this notwithstanding, at the time those statutes were passed, the common law governing the rights of married women obtained in this State.</p> <p>2. So, under those statutes, the county courts had the power to appoint a conservator for an insane married woman having an estate, and the circuit courts had the power, upon a proper application of the conservator so appointed, to authorize him to sell and convey the real estate of such insane person.</p> <p>3. While under the common law it was undoubtedly, in general terms, the peculiar province of the husband to have the care and management of the wife’s property and the custody of her person, and his duty to support her, whether sane or insane, yet his right to the care and management of her property did not extend to her separate estate. And in a case where the husband was unable to support an insane wife who had an adequate separate estate settled upon her without the intervention of a trustee, it is not doubted that a court of chancery, under its general powers, aside from our statute, might have appointed a conservator or trustee—either the husband or some one else, as might have been deemed most advisable—to sell and convey property for her support.</p> <p>4. Conveyances by conservators are in no sense to be regarded as conveyances by the lunatic;—they are conveyances made by the law for the benefit of the lunatic, and are analogous to conveyances by guardians and administrators.</p> <p>5. So, it can not be objected to a conveyance by the conservator of an insane married woman that there could be no conveyance by her, ev