If separate as to property she can administer her separate estate, transact her business in. her own name, and invest her income in stocks and other property as freely as tho not married. She may sell or dis pose of her movable property, but she requires her husband's authorization to sell or alienate her real es tate. She is bound to contribute out of her separate property to the expenses of the household and the education of the children. She may freely dispose of her separate property by will. If the married woman, on the other hand, is common as to property, she may dispose of only her half of the community.
In several of the English-law provinces there are no restrictions upon the liberty of the wife in dealing with separate property. Except in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island she may dispose of her real estate freely during her life or by will, and without her husband's consent.
6. Termination of business existence of individual. --./-ks in other forms of business organization, the busi ness unit conducted by an individual is dissolved by the occurrence of certain conditions. Thus the con trol of property ceases upon death, upon bankruptcy (financial death), upon insanity (mental deatb), and usually upon imprisonment for life (civil death).
7. Disposition of property at death.—Upon the death of an individual his property rights pass to others. If the decedent was of sound mind, of legal age (in some states competency to execute a will be gins earlier than does competency to make a contract) and was under no legal disability, he might exercise control over his property, even after death, thru the medium of a will. But the law abhors perpetui ties, and so it is impossible generally to tie up the title to real estate for more than two or three generations.
A person who dies without making a will or testa ment is said to die intestate, and the disposition of his property is governed by the intestate law. This law is very intricate and varies from state to state, and from province to province. In many states one rule is made .to apply to real estate and a different rule to personalty. In general, property descends in the following order : lineal descendants, (2) the parents, (3) brothers and sisters, and (4) other re moter relatives. In most states widows take abso lutely all of their deceased husband's personal estate and part of his real estate for life, or absolutely, if he dies leaving no children. If children are born, then the widow usually receives one-half of the personal estate, and a part of the real estate absolutely, or for life. When the husband has no relatives or descend
ants to take part of the estate, the whole of it usually passes to the widow.
Rights of a surviving husband in his deceased wife's estate vary greatly. In some states be gets either an absolute or a life interest in all or part of the realty and takes all or part of the personalty absolutely. The intestate laws'in the several states should be care fully examined to ascertain in every case the interests of the respective classes of heirs.
In Canada the laws of intestacy vary considerably in the different provinces. The general rule of de scent is as given above, namely, in their order, to lineal descendant§, parents, brothers and sisters and other remoter relatives. In Quebec, in case of com munity, if a consort dies, the surviving consort tak-es his or her half, and, if there are children, has the en . • joyment of the other half which belongs to the chil dren, until the latter are eighteen years old. Until recently, in Quebec, if property were held separately, the surviving consort had no interest in the separate estate of a consort deceased intestate. By a recent amendment the surviving consort is to some extent protected. In the English-law provinces, where sep aration as to property is the rule, the surviving con sort is assured of a portion of the estate of the de ceased consort who dies intestate.
8. Control of property 'upon death of individual.— Upon the death of an individual, title to his real estate passes immediately to his heirs. The title to per sonalty passes first to the personal representative, i.e., the administrator or executor, and then, upon settle ment of the decedent's debts, to the heirs and legatees, the former being those who are to receive the prop erty under intestate succession, and the latter, those named in a will to receive it. Administrators and executors are appointed by a proper court ; the former term is used when no selection has been made by the decedent, or when the executor named in a will fails to qualify. Executors, unless residents of foreign states, usually are not required to ifile a bond, while administrators are required to furnish them. For that reason, wills are often made merely to appoint an executor. The chief duties of the administrator or executor are to reduce the estate to possession, to pay all debts and to distribute the remainder of the estate to those entitled to it. In the payment of debts certain priorities are generally recognized; if all the debts cannot be paid out of personal property, the realty may be drawn upon.