ART. 45] POWERS AND OBLIGATIONS OF MARRIED WOMEN. 355

1898, ch. 457.

4. Married women shall hold all their property of every
description, for their separate use, as fully as if they were
unmarried, and shall have all the power to dispose of by deed,
mortgage, lease, will or any other instrument that husbands have
to dispose of their property, and no more; provided, that no
disposition of her real or personal property, or any portion thereof,
by deed, mortgage, bill of sale, or other conveyance, shall be valid
if made by a married woman under eighteen years of age, unless
her husband shall unite therein.

1898, ch. 457.

5. Married women shall have power to engage in any business,
and to contract, whether engaged in business or not, and to sue
upon their contracts, and also to sue for the recovery, security or
protection of their property, and for torts committed against
them, as fully as if they were unmarried; contracts may also be
made with them, and they may also be sued separately upon their
contracts, whether made before or during marriage, and for
wrongs independent of contract committed by them before or
during their marriage, as fully as if they were unmarried; and
upon judgments recovered against them, execution may be
issued as if they were unmarried; nor shall any husband be
liable upon any contract made by his wife in her own name and
upon her own responsibility, nor for any tort committed separ-
ately by her out of his presence, without his participation or
sanction.

P. G. L., (1888, ) art. 45, sec. 6. 1898, ch. 457.

6. A widow shall be entitled to dower in lands held by equit-
able as well as legal title in the husband at any time during the
coverture, whether held by him at the time of his death or not,
but such right of dower shall not operate to the prejudice of
any claim for the purchase money of such lands, or other lien on
the same.

1898, ch. 457.

7. Every husband shall acquire by virtue of his marriage an
estate for his life in one-third of the lands held or owned by his
wife at any time during the marriage, whether by legal or equit-