Sections 6 to 9 of the Married Women’s Property Act (Chapter 281) apply the capacity in section 2 to investments.
Includes deposits in a savings bank, building society, banking company or joint-stock company; annuities; public stock or funds and other transferable stocks; shares, stocks, debentures, debenture stock or other interests in a corporation, company, public body, or an industrial, provident, friendly, benefit, building or loan society; land registered under the Land Registration Act (Chapter 191), or an estate or interest in it, or a mortgage, encumbrance, charge or other security over it; and lands held under any other law relating to land.
That is the most consequential part of the definition. A State lease, or any other Torrens title under the Land Registration Act, falls within sections 6 to 9 — so a married woman registered as proprietor deals with it on her own authority.
Section 6 — investments in a married woman’s sole name
An investment standing in the sole name of a married woman is prima facie evidence that she is beneficially entitled to it, sufficiently to —
(a) authorise and empower her to receive, sell, mortgage, charge, transfer or otherwise deal with the investment; and
(b) receive the dividends, rents, issues, profits and income without the concurrence of her husband; and
(c) indemnify a person acting on or under such a receipt, sale, mortgage, charge, transfer or other dealing.
An investment allotted to, placed, registered or transferred into, or made to stand in, a married woman’s sole name shall, unless the contrary is shown, be deemed to be her property, in respect of which, so far as a liability may be incident, she alone is liable.
A bank, company or registrar dealing with a married woman on the strength of her sole registration is indemnified. It need not inquire into her husband’s position, and cannot be liable for accepting her receipt or acting on her transfer.
Without that protection, institutions would still insist on the husband’s involvement as a matter of caution, whatever the law said about capacity.
Section 6(2) then completes the picture on the liability side: where liability attaches to the investment — unpaid calls on shares, for instance — she alone is liable, consistent with section 2(b) and with section 14.
One limit: section 6(3) provides that the Act does not require or authorise a corporation or joint-stock company to admit a married woman as a holder of shares carrying liability contrary to a law, charter, by-law, articles of association or deed of settlement regulating the company.
Sections 7 and 8
The provisions about investments in a married woman’s sole name extend and apply, so far as relates to her estate, rights, title or interest, to an investment standing in her name jointly with a person other than her husband.
It is not necessary for the husband, in respect of her interest, to join in the transfer of or other dealing with an investment standing (a) in her sole name, or (b) in her name jointly with a person other than her husband.
| Investment held | Position |
|---|---|
| In her sole name | Prima facie hers; she may deal with it alone; husband need not join |
| Jointly with a third party | Same, as to her estate, right, title or interest — s 7 |
| Jointly with her husband | Sections 7 and 8 do not apply; the ordinary rules of joint ownership govern — and section 3(a) permits spouses to hold jointly or as tenants in common |
Sections 7 and 8 are about removing the husband from transactions that are not his concern. Where the investment is held jointly with him, he is a co-owner in his own right, and his concurrence is required because of his own interest — not because he is her husband.
Section 9 — investments made with the husband’s money
(1) If an investment is acquired by a married woman by means of moneys of her husband, without his consent, a court may, on an application under this Act, order the investment and the dividends or income, or any part of it, to be transferred and paid to the husband.
(2) This Act does not give validity, as against creditors of the husband, to —
(a) a gift by a husband to his wife of property that, after the gift, continues to be in the order and disposition or reputed ownership of the husband; or
(b) a deposit or other investment of the husband’s moneys made by or in the name of his wife in fraud of his creditors.
(3) Moneys referred to in subsection (2)(b) may be followed as if this Act had not been made.
Subsection (1) protects the husband. Where his money was used without his consent, the court may order the investment and its income transferred to him. The application route is section 15.
Subsections (2) and (3) protect his creditors. A husband cannot defeat them by putting assets in his wife’s name while continuing to treat them as his own, nor by depositing money in her name in fraud of them. The money may be followed as if the Act had never been passed.
These provisions are the answer to the obvious risk created by the rest of the Act: if a married woman may hold property freely in her own name, that could otherwise become a place to hide a husband’s assets. Compare section 93 of the Matrimonial Causes Act (Chapter 282), which allows the Court to set aside a disposition made to defeat an order in a matrimonial cause.
Where ownership is genuinely in dispute, the summary route in section 15 allows either spouse — or the bank, company or public officer in whose books the property stands — to apply to a Judge for a declaration of title or right to possession.
Sources
- Married Women’s Property Act (Chapter 281) — ss 1–3, 5–9, 14, 15
- Land Registration Act (Chapter 191)
- Matrimonial Causes Act (Chapter 282) — s 93
Before relying on anything here, read the current text of the Marriage Act (Chapter 280) and check for later amendments. If a decision matters to you, get advice — start with the Office of the Public Solicitor, or find a firm in the law firms directory.