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Equity To A Settlement (Wife's) - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition equity-to-a-settlement-wife-s

Definition :

Equity to a settlement (Wife's). Prior to the Married Women's Property Acts (see MARRIED WOMEN'S PROPERTY), the law permitted a husband to possess himself absolutely of the whole of his wife's personal property and the rents and profits, during the coverture, of her realty; the consequence of which was that the wife, however great her fortune, might be left destitute. Whenever, therefore, he or any person claiming in his right was obliged to come into a Court of Equity for the recovery of the wife's property, the Court, as the price of its assistance, required him to make a settlement of some portion of it in favour of the wife and her children, the rule being to settle one-half in ordinary cases, but the whole if the husband were insolvent or had deserted his wife or there had been a dissolution of marriage on the ground of his adultery, Barrow v. Barrow, (1854) 5 De GM&G 782; Morgan v. Morgan, (1854) 2 Eq Rep 1270. The (English) Married Women's Property Act, 1882, by leaving a wife's property unaffected by her marriage, has rendered the exercise of this jurisdiction unnecessary.

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