Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ On the other hand, it is argued that the settlement renounced all claim by the wife to Carmen, if any she had; that the last words of the will have an import similar to that of those used in connection with the previous mortgage; that en virtud de means by virtue of, that if the wife had a claim it was outside the settlement, and those words would not describe it, even if, at the date of the will, the estate had still stood in the husband's name, where notoriously, and as she well knew, it had not stood for years. The government also claims as a bona fide purchaser without notice. ”

“ But the injustice of making the Civil Code operative before its contents could be known and before the revision contemplated by the law was so manifest that on February 24, 1903, an act was passed purporting to validate all conveyances of real estate and in general all acts that required certification by a notary executed after March 1, 1902, and on or before January 1, 1903, if they would have been valid by the laws in force on February 28, 1902. ”

“ On November, 10, 1901, a settlement was made by which it was stated that the husband had received $10,000 as the product of the wife's paraphernal property, had paid her $5,000 and given a mortgage for the other $5,000, and in view thereof, she 'renounces all the rights and interests which she might have against her husband because of the facts stated in the said complaint.' The instrument was presented to the court with a prayer that the court would hold that the parties had desisted from continuing the action and that the cautionary notice be canceled, which was granted on November 21. ”