CHAP. 345.—An ACT to amend and re-enact an act entitled an act in relation to a
surviving husband’s curtesy, approved March 28, 1922. [H B 90}

Approved March 20, 1924.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That an act
entitled an act in relation to a surviving husband’s curtesy, approved
March twenty-eighth, nineteen hundred and twenty-two, be amended
and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 1. A surviving husband shall be entitled to an estate by the
curtesy in one-third of all the real estate whereof his wife, or any other
to her use, was, at any time, during the coverture, seized in fact or in
law of an estate of inheritance, unless his right to such curtesy shall
have been lawfully barred or relinquished; but if she die wholly intestate
and without issue of the marriage which was dissolved by her death or
of a former marriage, her surviving husband shall be entitled to an es-
tate by the curtesy in one-third of such real estate, as aforesaid, and,
in addition thereto, subject to the rights of his wife’s creditors, in all
the residue of such real estate of his wife; or if she die partially intestate
and without any such issue, her surviving husband shall be entitled to
an estate by the curtesy in one-third of such real estate, as aforesaid,
and, in addition thereto, subject to the rights of his wife’s creditors and
after the rights of the devisee or devisees under his wife’s will shall have
been fully satisfied, in all the residue, if any, of such real estate. The
fact that the husband conveyed, or caused to be conveyed, the real
estate to the wife, or to her use, shall not bar his curtesy therein, nor
shall it be a requisite to curtesy that the wife shall have had a child
born alive during the coverture; and when a wife, or any other to her
use, shall have been entitled to a right of entry or action in any land, and
her surviving husband would be entitled to curtesy in the same if the
wife or such other had recovered possession thereof, he shall be entitled
to such curtesy, although there shall have been no such recovery of
possession. A surviving husband, however, shall not be entitled to
curtesy in his wife’s equitable separate estate if his right thereto be ex-
pressly excluded by the instrument creating the same. If the surviving
husband be not entitled to an estate by the curtesy in the whole estate,
a court of equity, on bill filed by him, his guardian or committee, shall
have jurisdiction to assign curtesy in any case where any of the parties
interested are under disability or for any other reason no agreement
between them can be made or reached.

.2. Anemergency existing, this act shall be in force from its passage.