Laughlin Bros. v. Fream

Citations

• 14 W. Va. 322
• 1878 W. Va. LEXIS 70

Syllabus

<p>1. A de'ed of lands is made in 1855 by a party, other than a husband, to a married woman ; but the deed does not give her a separate estate therein. The 66th chapter of the Code of West Virginia does not convert her estate in such case into a separate estate.</p> <p>2. The certificate of the acknowledgment of a deed by a married woman is as follows: “State of West Virginia, Preston County, ss: Personally appeared before me the undersigned, notary public for said county, Abby Dream, the wife of said J. Dream, whose names are signed to the foregoing assignment, and being by me, in accordance with the law in that case made and provided, and having the said writing fully explained to her, she acknowledged the same to be her act and deed for the purposes therein specified and set forth, and that she wished'not to retract it. In testimony whereof, I have hereuntq signed my name and affixed my seal dated aforesaid. R. W. Monroe, [Seal.]’’ Such a certificate is fatally defective, because it does not show that she was examined privily and apart from her husband, and it does not show, that she declared she had willingly executed the same.</p> <p>3. If a deed be signed and sealed by a married woman and her husband, and the certificate of her acknowledgment is in due form, yet if she is not on the face of the deed one of the grantors therein, such deed is inoperative to convey any interest she may have in the real estate conveyed thereby, or to relinquish her contingent right of dower in the lands therein named.</p>