Lyell v. Walbach

(Orally)

The plaintiff has not made out a case.

At common law a married woman could not make contracts. Modifications of that rule arose, and a married woman was permitted to make contracts binding her sole and separate estate and her statutory separate estate.

But these exceptions have no application to this case, because the defendant never had any separate estate.

This was the law in Maryland until the Act of 1898, Chapter 457, Section 5, which provides : “Married women shall have power to engage in any business and to contract, whether engaged in business or not, and to sue upon their…