Opinion
(June Term, 1864.)
Courts of equity have no jurisdiction to reform a marriage settlement by which property is conveyed to the separate use of the wife, when the bill alleges no fraud, imposition, error, or mistake, in respect of the contents of the deed or its execution, and there is no allegation that any provision of the deed has been found to be hurtful to the fund, prejudicial to the interest of the parties, or of marked inconvenience in execution.
THE bill sets out that the plaintiff married in July, 1859, having a short time before executed a deed jointly with the defendant Francis E. Shober, by which everything then owned by Mrs. Crossland, and everything which she might thereafter acquire, or which might come to her by act of law, was conveyed to the defendant Shober in trust for the sole and separate use of Mrs. Crossland, with power to her to dispose of the property by will during the coverture. The deed provided that in case Mr. Crossland died in his wife's lifetime, the trustee should reconvey all the property to her, and if Mrs. Crossland died first, the property not disposed of by her will should go to the issue of the marriage, and if there was no issue, to such persons as would take her property (563) in case she died unmarried and intestate. The bill states that there is issue of the marriage, the defendant Lizzie Crossland; it then says that the plaintiffs are desirous that the settlement should be reformed by vesting all of the property in the husband, or such part of it as the court shall think proper, and concludes with a general prayer for relief. A guardian has been appointed to the infant, who answers, submitting her rights to the court. The trustee answered, admitting the facts set forth in the plaintiffs' bill, and submitting to perform what decree the court might make.
Winston, Sr., for plaintiffs.
No counsel for defendants.
We are at a loss to conceive of any principle of jurisdiction in courts of equity upon which the bill of complaint can rest.
No fraud, imposition, error, or mistake is alleged in respect to the deed, or in respect to its execution. No provision has been pointed out which in its practical working has been found hurtful to the fund, prejudicial to the interests of the parties, or of marked inconvenience in execution. Those who entered into it, therefore, must abide its operation.
To reform a marriage settlement at the instance of the wife upon whose stipulation and for whose benefit it was intended would expose such instruments to frequent change and much uncertainty and lead to mischief, which we are anxious to avoid. Married women can only be allowed to deal with the separate estate in conformity with the faculties conferred on them by the deed, and if not restricted in terms by the instrument, can charge specifically income or profits, with the (564) concurrence of the trustee. Beyond this, it seems to us, it would be mischievous to enlarge her faculties.
A power during the coverture to modify at will the provisions of the deed would remove at once the protection secured by these rules, and render of little or no avail such deeds of settlement. Parties cannot be relieved from the incidental chafing of such restraints as they may choose, for prudential reasons, deliberately to impose on themselves in respect to the control of property, any more than they can be relieved from the occasional unpleasant force and effect of the matrimonial ties themselves.
Both may be relieved by gentle and prudent conduct appropriately tempered, but not by the courts.
The bill must be dismissed.