Loupe v. Smith

Citations

• 123 Cal. 491
• 56 P. 254
• 1899 Cal. LEXIS 1104

Syllabus

<p>Vendor and Purchaser—Contract op Married Woman to Convey— Necessity op Acknowledgment—Amendment op Code in 1891.—The amendments of the Civil Code made in 1891, leaving section 1093 of that code standing with meaningless references to repealed sections, did not operate to repeal the whole of that section by implication; but that section,omitting the references,is to be construed with section 1187 of the Civil Code, as amended in 1891, and as still requiring the acknowledgment of a married woman to an instrument of conveyance of her separate real estate.</p> <p>Id.—Specific Performance.—A specific performance cannot be enforced of an unacknowledged contract of a married woman to convey her separate real estate when such contract was made at a time when an acknowledgment was required to a conveyance of her real estate.</p> <p>Id.—Damages fob Breach—Construction of Code—Invalid Contract. No action will lie against a married woman for damages for breach of her unacknowledged contract made in the year 1894 to convey her separate real estate. Section 158 of the Civil Code, providing for the wife’s ability to contract, did not affect the requirement of an acknowledgment by her of an instrument affecting her real estate, so long as that requirement survived, and an unacknowledged contract by a married woman to convey her real property, made after the amendments of 1891 to the Civil Code, and prior to the amendments of 1895, was invalid for every purpose.</p>