Robert Cooper Grier

“ She releases all claim or demand in law or equity, in possession or expectancy, 'so that neither she, nor her heirs, can or may, by any ways or means whatsoever, hereafter have, claim, challenge, or demand any right, title, interest, or estate in the premises.' It is hard to conceive how any conveyancer could devise language more comprehensive, or legal phraseology more stringent, to convey every possible estate of the grantor and operate as a perfect legal estoppel against all possible claim in any character whatever. ”

“ The acts of Assembly of Alabama concerning conveyances, frequently use the phrase 'deeds and relinquishments of dower,' which is probably the cause or the consequence of this form of conveyancing in that state, and that in popular parlance, a conveyance of land in this form is described as if a 'relinquishment of dower' was not a deed, or a portion of the conveyance, assurance, or grant, though made at the same time, and forming a portion of it. ”

“ The certificate of the notary that she acknowledged she signed, sealed, and delivered the indenture of mortgage, gives no effect to the mortgage against her right to dower, because the acknowledgment was of the deed of mortgage, which could not convey her right of dower, as it was not her deed, and contained no grant from her. The interest of a married woman in real estate can be conveyed only by a grant from her in a deed, to which she is a party. ”

“ Anne Hitchcock, was complainant below, in two bills filed in the Circuit Court of Alabama, claiming her dower in certain property in the city of Mobile, of which her late husband, Henry Hitchcock, was seized in his lifetime, and of which the appellants, as trustees of the United States Bank, were in possession, claiming under a mortgage given by said Henry.
The answer admits the marriage of complainant, and the seizin and death of her husband, and that the appellants hold the property under a deed of mortgage from him; but deny that complainant has any right of dower in the premises. ”

“ Yet, it is contended, that the widow may elect to take under this devise in the will; that, under pretence and belief of such election, she may get her husband's estate released from a debt and receive a large consideration in money for a release of her title as 'sole devisee,' and afterwards change her election, defeat all the covenants of her own deed, and yet retain the whole consideration paid for it. It is not worth while to examine what acts of a widow amount to an election in pais to take under the will. ”

“ The instrument before us, composed of what is popularly called the mortgage and relinquishment of dower, constitutes but one deed or conveyance executed by husband and wife, for the purpose of conveying the fee vested in the husband, and releasing the inchoate right of the wife. ”

“ The act requires a private examination of the wife to ascertain that she acts freely and not by compulsion of her husband, but it prescribes no precise form of words to be used in the certificate, nor requires that it should contain all the synonymes used in the statute to express the meaning of the legislature. ”

“ She makes no offer in her bill to restore the sum of $150,000 paid to her or her agent, or to surrender the release given to her by the trustees of the bank which was the consideration paid for her release, but contends that she is remitted to her original rights by her last election, and is not estopped by her deed which was merely the execution of a power, and could not affect her personal right, or bar her claim to dower in the land conveyed or released. ”

“ And I, Anne Hitchcock, wife of the said Henry Hitchcock, for and in consideration of the sum of one dollar, to me in hand paid by the said Joseph Cowperthwaite, Thomas Dunlap, and Herman Cope, have relinquished, and hereby do relinquish by these presents, all my right and title of dower in and to the above described premises, to the said Joseph Cowperthwaite, Thomas Dunlap, and Herman Cope, the survivors or survivor of them, and to the heirs, executors, and assigns of such survivor forever. ”