CHAPTER XXXII.

HABEAS CORPUS.

Sec. 1143. How OBTAINED.-Any person committed, detained, confined, or restrained from his lawful liberty within the District, under any color or pretense whatever, or any person in his or her behalf, may apply by petition to the supreme court of the District, or any justice thereof, for a writ of habeas corpus, to the end that the cause of such commitment, detainer, confinement, or restraint may be inquired into; and the court or the justice applied to, if the facts set forth in the petition make a prima facie case, shall forthwith grant such writ, directed to the officer or other person in whose custody or keeping the party so detained shall be, returnable forthwith before said court or justice.

Sec. 1144. How SERVED.-The said writ shall be served by delivering it to the officer or other person to whom it is directed, or by leaving it at the prison or place at which the party suing it out is detained; and such officer or other person shall forthwith, or within such reasonable time as the court or justice shall direct, make return of the writ and cause the person detained to be brought before the court or justice, according to the command of the writ, and shall likewise certify the true cause of his detainer or imprisonment, if any, and under what color or pretense such person is confined or restrained of his liberty.

Sec. 1145. EVASION.-On any application for a writ of habeas corpus, if probable cause be shown for believing that the person charged with confining or detaining the person applying or on whose behalf the application is made is about to remove the person so detained from the place where he may then be, for the purpose of evading any writ of habeas corpus or for other purposes, or that he would evade or not obey any such writ, the court or justice shall insert in the writ a clause commanding the marshal to serve the writ on the person to whom it is directed and cause said person immediately to be and appear before the court or justice, together with the person so confined or detained, and it shall thereupon be the duty of the marshal immediately to carry the person charged with the detention, together with the person detained, before the court or justice, and said court or justice shall proceed to inquire into the matter.

Sec. 1146. REFUSAL TO PRODUCE.-If any officer or other person to whom a writ of habeas corpus may be directed shall neglect or refuse to make return thereof, or to bring the body of the person detained, according to the command of the writ, he shall forfeit to the person detained the sum of five hundred dollars, and besides shall be liable to attachment and punishment as for a contempt.

Sec. 1147. COPY OF COMMITMENT.-Any person committed or detained, or any person in his behalf, may demand a true copy of the warrant of commitment or detainer, and any officer or other person detaining him who shall refuse or neglect to deliver to him a true copy of the warrant of commitment or detainer, if any there be, within six hours after the demand, shall forfeit to the party so detained the sum of five hundred dollars.

Sec. 1148. INQUIRY INTO CAUSE OF DETENTION.-On the return of the writ of habeas corpus and the production of the person detained the court or justice shall immediately inquire into the legality and propriety of such confinement or detention, and if it shall appear that such person is detained without legal warrant or authority, he shall immediately be released or discharged; or if the court or justice shall deem his detention to be lawful and proper, he shall be remanded to the same custody, or, in a proper case, admitted to bail, if he be confined on a charge of a bailable criminal offense; and if he be bailed, the court or justice shall require a sufficient bond or recognizance to answer in the proper court, and transmit the same to said court.

Sec. 1149. TRAVERSING RETURN.-Any person at whose instance or in whose behalf a writ of habeas corpus has been issued may traverse the return thereto, or plead any matters showing that there is not a sufficient legal cause for his confinement or detention, and the court or justice may issue process for witnesses or for the production of papers, which snall be served and enforced in like manner as similar process issued in a cause depending in court, if the court or justice shall be satisfied of the materiality of the testimony proposed to be adduced.

Sec. 1150. RIGHT OF PARENT, GUARDIAN, OR HUSBAND.-Any person entitled to the custody of another person, unlawfully confined or detained by a third person, as a parent, guardian, committee, or husband, entitled to the custody of a minor child, ward, lunatic, or wife, upon application to the court or a justice as aforesaid, and showing just cause therefor, under oath, shall be entitled to a writ of habeas corpus, directed to the person confining or detaining as aforesaid, requiring him forthwith to appear and produce before the court or justice the person so detained, and the same proceedings shall be had in relation thereto as hereinabove authorized, and the court or justice, upon hearing the proofs, shall determine which of the contesting parties is entitled to the custody of the person so detained, and commit the custody of said person to the party legally entitled thereto.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

HUSBAND AND WIFE.

Sec. 1151. WIFE'S PROPERTY EXEMPT FROM HUSBAND'S DEBTS.-All the property, real, personal, and mixed, belonging to a woman at the time of her marriage, and all such property which she may acquire or receive after her marriage from any person whomsoever, by purchase, gift, grant, devise, bequest, descent, in the course of distribution, by her own skill, labor, or personal exertions, or as proceeds of a judgment at law or decree in equity, or in any other manner, shall be her own property as absolutely as if she were unmarried, and shall be protected from the debts of the husband and shall not in any way be liable for the payment thereof: Provided, That no acquisition of property passing to the wife from the husband after coverture shall be valid if the same has been made or granted to her in prejudice of the rights of his subsisting creditors.

Sec. 1152. HUSBAND MAY CONVEY DIRECTLY TO WIFE. -Whenever any interest or estate of any kind in any property, real, personal, or mixed, situate, lying, or being within this District, has been or shall hereafter be sold, conveyed, assigned, mortgaged, leased, transferred, or delivered by any husband directly or indirectly to his wife, and has been or shall hereafter be subsequently sold, conveyed, assigned, mortgaged, leased, transferred, or delivered by such wife and husband during their coverture, or hereafter by such wife solely or by such wife after such coverture has terminated, or shall hereafter be devised or bequeathed by such wife during such coverture or after such coverture has terminated, the fact of such previous sale, conveyance, assignment, mortgage, lease, or delivery by such husband, directly or indirectly, to his wife shall not hereafter be deemed or taken, at law or in equity, to have given, preserved, or reserved, nor to give, preserve, or reserve, to any subsisting creditor of such husband, by reason of any debt or obligation, claim, or demand whatsoever, any other or greater right, lien, or cause of action against such interest or estate, or against any third person, his heirs, executors, administrators, or assigns, than such creditors would have had in case such interest or estate had been sold, conveyed, assigned, mortgaged, leased, transferred or delivered, or devised, or bequeathed by such husband directly to such third person. And the fact of such previous sale, conveyance, assignment, mortgage, lease, or delivery by such husband directly or indirectly to his wife, or the recital thereof in any instrument of writing whatever, shall not hereafter be deemed or taken, at law or in equity, to give or impart nor to have given or imparted notice to any third person, his heirs, executors, administrators, or assigns of the existence or of the possibility or probability of the existence of any subsisting creditor or creditors of such husband.

Sec. 1153. NO TRUSTEE NECESSARY.-It shall not be necessary for a married woman to have a trustee to secure to her the sole and separate use of her property; but if she desires it she may make a trustee by deed, or she may apply to a court of equity and have a trustee appointed, in which appointment the uses and trusts for which the trustee holds the property shall be declared.

Sec. 1154. PROPERTY OF WIFE. Married women shall hold all their property, of every description, for their separate use as fully as if they were unmarried, and shall have power to dispose of the same by deed, mortgage, lease, will, gift, or otherwise, as fully as if they were unmarried: 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 twenty-one years of age.

Sec. 1155. PoWER OF WIFE TO TRADE, AND TO SUE AND BE SUED. Married women shall have power to engage in any business, and to contract, whether engaged in business or not, and to sue separately upon their contracts, and also to sue separately for the recovery, security, or protection of their property, and for torts committed against them, as fully and freely 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 separately by her out of his presence without his participation or sanction: Provided, That no married woman shall have power to make any contract as surety or guarantor, or as accommodation drawer, accepter, maker, or indorser.

Sec. 1156. CONTRACTS OF WIFE. Every contract made by a married woman which she has the power to make shall be deemed to be made with reference to her estate which is made her separate estate by this chapter, and also her equitable separate estate, if any she has, as a source of credit to the extent of her power over the same, unless the contrary intent is expressed in the contract.

Sec. 1157. INFANT FEME COVERT.-In case any married woman entitled to a separate estate as aforesaid shall be an infant under twenty-one years of age, she shall be under the same disabilities in regard thereto as other infants, except as herein elsewhere provided, and a guardian of said estate shall be appointed.

Sec. 1158. DoWER.-A widow shall be entitled to dower in lands held by equitable 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 lein on the same.

Sec. 1159. ESTATE BY THE CURTESY.-On the death of any married woman owning real estate in fee simple and intestate thereof, if there has been a child born of the marriage capable of inheriting said property, the husband surviving her shall be entitled to an estate by the

curtesy therein, whether the wife's estate be legal or equitable and whether the wife's seizin be in deed or in law only.

Sec. 1160. ADMINISTRATION OF WIFE'S ESTATE.-On the death of any married woman owning real or personal estate and intestate thereof, her said estate shall be administered on as if she had been unmarried, and in the appointment of her administrator her husband shall be entitled to be preferred. After payment of her debts her said personal estate shall be the property of her husband.

Sec. 1161. INSURANCE OF HUSBAND'S LIFE.- Any married woman, by herself and in her name, or in the name of any third person, with his assent, as her trustee, may insure or cause to be insured for her sole use, the life of her husband for any definite period or for the term of his natural life; and any husband may cause his own life to be insured for the sole use of his wife, and may also assign any policy of insurance upon his own life to his wife for her sole use; and in case of the wife surviving her husband the sum or net amount of such insurance becoming due and payable by the terms of the insurance shall be payable to her for her own use, free from the claims of the representatives of her husband or any of his creditors.

Sec. 1162. INSURANCE NOT LIABLE FOR HUSBAND'S DEBTS.-All policies of life insurance upon the life of any person which may hereafter mature, and which have been or shall be taken out for the benefit of or bona fide assigned to the wife or children of or any relative dependent upon such person, or any creditor, shall be vested in such wife or children or other relative or creditor, free and clear from all claims of the creditors of such insured person.

Sec. 1163. INSURANCE PAYABLE ON DEATH OF WIFE TO CHILDREN. If the wife shall die before her husband, the amount of such insurance may be payable after her death to the children or descendants for their use, and to their guardian if under age; and if there be no children or descendants of the wife living at the time of her death, to her legal representatives.

Sec. 1164. RECEIPT OF MARRIED WOMAN. The receipt of any married woman for the payment of money deposited by her before or after marriage shall be a valid discharge to any individual or corporation making such payment: Provided, That nothing contained in this section shall prevent any creditor of the husband from attaching the same or restraining the payment by injunction if the deposit was made in fraud of his creditors.

Sec. 1165. LUNATIC, INSANE, OR PERMANENTLY ABSENT WIFE.Where any married woman is a lunatic or insane, and has been so found upon inquisition, and the said finding remains in force, or where any married woman has been absent or unheard of for seven years, the husband of such lunatic or insane or absent person may grant and convey by his separate deed, whether the same be absolute or by way of lease or mortgage, as fully as if he were unmarried, any real estate which he may have acquired since the finding of such inquisition or since the beginning of such absence.

Sec. 1166. DEBTS OF WIFE BEFORE MARRIAGE.-No husband shall be liable in any manner for any debts of his wife contracted or for any claims or demands of any kind against her arising prior to marriage,

4360-02-16