Rufus Wheeler Peckham

“ We therefore agree with the views expressed by some of the text-writers, when power is given by statute to married women to convey their interest in real estate where their husbands join in the conveyance, and where the private examination is made, that in such cases the right of the wife to dispose of it by power of attorney joined in by her husband, and where she was privately examined, etc., would naturally be implied. ”

“ We are of opinion that the war did not revoke the power of attorney executed by Mrs. Ransom and her husband. It is not every agency that is necessarily revoked by the breaking out of a war between two countries in which the principal and agent respectively live. ”

“ In most, if not all, of the states of the Union, statutes have been passed providing for the manner in which a married woman can dispose of her real estate. These statutes were intended to and did set aside the technicalities of the common law, and they provided some simple and effectual method for the transfer of the interests of married women in real estate. ”

“ The common law, which incapacitates a married woman from making a contract in general, is so far altered by the statute as to permit her to execute a power of attorney, and to therein contract to ratify his acts, instead of conveying directly, as the statute in terms provides. See 3 Washb. Real Prop. (4th Ed.) p. 258. The author there says: 'It is laid down unqualifiedly, in some of the states, that a married woman cannot make a valid power of attorney, even jointly with her husband, to make a deed of her interest. ”

“ If not, then the husband could not sell and convey by power of attorney, free of the contingent right of dower of his wife; for, if the wife could not acknowledge by power of attorney a deed for the conveyance of her own real estate, she would be equally unable to acknowledge by power of attorney a deed for the relinquishment of dower in the lands of her husband. ”

“ The statute declares the instrument is to have effect and validity to pass the fee simple to the estate intended to be conveyed and to bar dower in the real estate therein mentioned 'in favor of parties in actual possession, claiming under and through such deeds.' It is said that this limitation to the parties in actual possession refers to the time when the act was passed, and, if the parties claiming under the deed were not at that time in actual possession of the premises, the statute has no application to them. ”

“ As a consequence of this fundamental proposition, it must follow that no active business can be maintained, either personally or by correspondence, or through an agent, by the citizens of one belligerent with the citizens of the other. The only exception to the rule recognized in the books, if we lay out of view contracts for ransom and other matters of absolute necessity, is that of allowing the payment of debts to an agent of an alien enemy, where such agent resides in the same state with the debtor. ”

“ Certain provisions therein fully recognize the then existing right of a married woman to appoint, jointly with her husband, an attorney in fact to convey lands owned by her in this District, and language is used for the purpose of curing certain named defects which might exist in the execution or acknowledgment of such a paper. ”

“ It was in relation to such an agency that the remarks were made. Agents of a life insurance company are undoubtedly engaged in the active business of their principal. Their duty is to receive the premiums for all policies obtained by them and to transmit such premiums to the home office. The prompt transmission of such premiums is a necessity for the successful prosecution of the business of the company. Upon their receipt the company is able to invest them in some interest-bearing security, and thus provide funds for the ultimate payment of the policy when it matures. ”

“ We agree generally that, although there are words of conveyance in praesenti in a contract for the purchase and sale of lands, still, if from the whole instrument it is manifest that further conveyances were contemplated by the parties, it will be considered an agreement to convey and not a conveyance. The whole question is one of intention, to be gathered from the instrument itself. ”

“ This statement was not made as descriptive of the only method by which a married woman could convey her land, but was made in relation to the defective manner in which the deed of conveyance was executed in the particular case, which was the case of a deed defectively acknowledged under the statute. No decision has been cited by counsel for the appellants from the courts of Maryland which is inconsistent with or opposed to the construction given to these statutes by the court below. ”

“ Justice Gray in delivering the opinion of the supreme judicial court of Massachusetts, and numerous authorities are referred to and commented upon in the opinion. In the course of that opinion it was said, at page 572: 'The result is that the law of nations, as judicially declared, prohibits all intercourse between citizens of the two belligerents which is inconsistent with the state of war between their countries ”