The act of 1901 is an amendment to section 1781 of The Code, which subjects the property upon which the repairs or improvements are made to a lien. This brings the case directly within the reason for the decision in Smaw v. Cohen, 95 N.C. 85. In that case the jurisdiction of the justice was sustained by reason of the express requirement of the statute that a suit against a person to enforce such a lien, when the amount is less than $200, shall be brought in a justice's court.
The plaintiff, it is presumed, knew of her inability to charge her general statutory separate real estate in any other way than by a deed and privy examination, and if we were to give the effect contended for to such a transaction, it would, as Judge Ruffin said, be doing, indirectly, what the law forbids to be done directly. In passing, we will state that the case of Smaw v. Cohen, 95 N.C. 85, may be sustained, as to the liability of the separate estate, on the ground that the statute, ch. 41 of The Code (Liens), directly charges it. (301) There is another view, however, which is fatal to the plaintiff.