TITLE 13

Domestic Relations

CHAPTER 3. Husband and Wife; Contracts and Property Rights

Subchapter I. Married Women

§ 311. Rights of married women.

The property of a married woman, whether real, personal or mixed, and choses in action which she has acquired in any manner, and all the income, rents and profits thereof, shall be deemed to be her sole and separate property. She may sell, convey, assign, transfer, devise, bequeath, encumber or otherwise dispose of the same and she may contract jointly (including with her husband) or separately, sue and be sued and exercise all other rights and powers, including the power to make a will, which a femme sole may do under the laws of this State. Nothing in this section shall be deemed to affect the right of the husband, if he survives his wife, as tenant by the curtesy in the real estate of his wife. Acknowledgments by married women of all instruments relating to or affecting real estate shall be taken as provided in Title 25.

Code 1852, §  1469;  12 Del. Laws, c. 572, §  114 Del. Laws, c. 550, §§  4, 515 Del. Laws, c. 165, §  522 Del. Laws, c. 203, §  1;  Code 1915, §§  3047, 3050, 3052, 3055;  30 Del. Laws, c. 197, §  1;  Code 1935, §  3541;  13 Del. C. 1953, §  311;  70 Del. Laws, c. 186, §  1

§ 312. Validation of certain acts completed prior to April 21, 1919.

All sales or other disposition of real estate, mortgages, stocks or silver plate made by a married woman prior to April 21, 1919, and all encumbrances upon her real estate created by a married woman prior to that date, and any disposition of the rents, issues and profits thereof, and the interest upon her mortgages or dividends or other income arising from her stocks, made by a married woman prior to that date without her husband’s consent, which are otherwise valid and lawful, shall not be invalid and unlawful because of the failure of such married woman to secure her husband’s consent in writing thereto.

12 Del. Laws, c. 572, §  1;  Code 1915, §  3055;  30 Del. Laws, c. 197, §  1;  Code 1935, §  3542;  13 Del. C. 1953, §  312;  70 Del. Laws, c. 186, §  1

§ 313. Married woman as executrix or administratrix; participation and liability of husband.

Any executrix or administratrix, being a married woman, may act in such representative capacity as though she was a femme sole, and the fact of marriage shall not give her husband any right to participate in any manner in the management, direction and settlement of the estate of the deceased, nor shall he be liable for any act or default of hers as such executrix or administratrix, unless he is a party to her bond as such.

15 Del. Laws, c. 165, §  2;  Code 1915, §  3053;  Code 1935, §  3546;  13 Del. C. 1953, §  313;  70 Del. Laws, c. 186, §  1

§ 314. Debts of married women; judgment.

All debts contracted before marriage by the wife, or by her authority after marriage, shall be a charge on her real and personal property and a judgment therefor may be recovered against her in her name.

14 Del. Laws, c. 550, §  2;  Code 1915, §  3060;  Code 1935, §  3547;  13 Del. C. 1953, §  314;  70 Del. Laws, c. 186, §  1