Worrell v. Forsyth

Citations

• 141 Ill. 22
• 30 N.E. 673

Syllabus

<p>1. Husband and wire—right to contract with each other. Section of the act of March 30, 1874, relating to husband and wife, which provides that “contracts may be made and liabilities incurred by a wife, and the same enforced against her, to the same extent and in the same manner as if she were unmarried,” except that she can not enter into or carry on any partnership business without the consent of her husband, unless he has abandoned her, etc., is broad enough in its language to authorize contracts between husband and wife for lawful purposes not embraced within the exceptions of the act itself.</p> <p>2. Same -ante-nuptial contract—power of substitution by agreement. By an ante-nuptial contract it was agreed that if the marriage was consummated and the wife should survive the husband, she was to have a certain described eighty acres of land and $500 in money out of his estate as her marriage portion in lieu of all other rights in and to his estate. After the marriage the husband sold the eighty acres mentioned, and. his wife joined in the deed therefor to the purchaser in consideration of the agreement of the husband to give her another eighty acres of land of equal value, and at the same time the husband and wife conveyed the latter tract to a trustee, in trust for the husband during his life, but to be conveyed to the wife if she survived him: Held, that it was competent for the husband and wife to enter into the contract for the substitution of another tract of land in place of that first given to the wife.</p> <p>3. Same—ante-nuptial contract—not annulled by an agreement to substitute land to be conveyed. Where a wife before her marriage accepts a sealed agreement of the husband for the conveyance of a tract of land, to be made on his death, in lieu of all dower in his lands and all claims on his estate, a parol agreement between them for the substitution of another more valuable tract, when executed by her joining with the husband in a conveyance of the fir