III. BY HUSBAND AND WIFE.

952. Of wife's land; how proven. Every conveyance, power of attorney or other instrument affecting the estate, right or title of any married woman in lands, tenements or hereditaments must be executed by such married woman and her husband, and due proof or acknowledgment thereof must be made as to the husband and due acknowledgment thereof must be made by the wife, and her private examination, touching her voluntary assent to such instrument, shall be taken separate and apart from her husband, and such acknowledgment or proof as to the execution by the husband and such acknowledgment by the wife and her private examination shall be taken and certified as provided by law. Any conveyance, power of attorney, contract to convey, mortgage, deed of trust or other instrument executed by any married woman in the manner by this chapter provided and executed by her husband also, shall be valid in law to pass, bind or charge the estate, right, title and interest of such married woman in and to all such lands, tenements and hereditaments or other estate, real or personal, as shall constitute the subject matter or be embraced within the terms and conditions of such instrument or purport to be passed, bound, charged or conveyed thereby.

Code, s. 1256; 1899, c. 235, s. 9; C. C. P., s. 429, subsec. 6; 1868-9, c. 277, s. 15. Note. For forms of private examination, see ss. 1003, 1004.

953. Acknowledgment by, at different times and places; before different officers. In all cases of deeds or other instruments executed by husband and wife and requiring registration, the probate of such instruments as to the husband and acknowledgment and private examination of the wife may be taken before different officers authorized by law to take probate of deeds, and at different times and places, whether both of said officials reside in this state or only one in this state and the other in another state or country. And in taking the probate of such instruments executed by husband and wife, including the private examination of the wife, it shall not be material whether the execution of the instrument was proven as to or acknowledged by the husband before or after the acknowledgment and private examination of the wife.

1899, c. 235, s. 9; 1895, c. 136.

954. Husband's deed registered though no private examination of wife. When an instrument purports to be signed by a husband and wife the instrument may be ordered registered, if the acknowledgment of the husband is duly taken, whether the private examination of the wife is properly taken or not, but no such instrument shall be the act or deed of the wife, unless her private examination is taken according to law.

1899, c. 235, s. 8; 1901, c. 637.

955. What officers can take private examinations of femes covert. When the private examination of any married woman is necessary to be taken, the officials authorized by law to take proofs and acknowledgments of the execution of any instrument are each and every one of them hereby empowered to take the private examination of any married woman touching her free and voluntary assent to the execution of such instrument to which her assent is or may be necessary, and to certify the fact of such private examination.

1899, c. 235, s. 6.

956. Private examination procured by fraud, deed good as to innocent purchaser for value. No deed of conveyance for lands nor instrument of writing of whatever nature or kind which is required or allowed by law to be registered executed by a husband and wife since the eleventh of March, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-nine, or which may be hereafter executed by a husband and wife, if the private examination of the wife shall have been certified in the manner prescribed by law, shall be deemed or declared invalid in any case because its execution was procured by fraud, duress or other undue influence, unless it shall be shown that the grantee or person or persons to whom such instrument was or shall be made participated in the fraud, duress or other undue influence or had notice thereof before the delivery of the instrument, and where the grantee or person or persons to whom such instrument has been or shall be made is shown to have had notice of such fraud, duress or undue influence or to have participated therein, an innocent purchaser for a valuable consideration from or under such grantee or person to whom such instrument has been or shall be made shall not be affected by any fraud, duress or other undue influence practiced or exercised in procuring the execution and acknowledgment of such instru

ment.

1889, c. 389; 1899, c. 235, s. 10.

957. Under power of attorney from. All conveyances which may be made by any person under a power of attorney from any feme covert by her freely executed with her husband, shall be valid to all intents and purposes to pass the estate, right and title which said feme covert may have in such lands, tenements and hereditaments as are mentioned or included in such power of attorney. Code, s. 1257; R. C., c. 37, s. 11; 1798, c. 510.

958. Wife need not join in purchase-money mortgage. The purchaser of real estate who does not pay the whole of the purchase money at the time when he takes a deed for title, may make a mortgage for securing the payment of such purchase money, or such part.

thereof as may remain unpaid, which shall be good and effectual against his wife as well as himself, without requiring her to join in the execution of such mortgage deed.

Code, s. 1272; 1868-9, c. 204.

959. By husband, wife a lunatic. Every man whose wife is a lunatic or insane and is confined in any asylum for lunatics and insane persons in the state of North Carolina shall have the right to sell and convey any of his real estate by deed, except his homestead, without the signature and private examination of his wife: Provided, the superintendent of the asylum in which said feme covert shall be confined shall certify that she is confined in the asylum of which he is superintendent, and that she is of insane mind and memory, which certificate shall be subscribed and sworn to before the clerk of the superior court of the county in which said asylum shall be situated, which certificate shall be attached to the deed, together with the certificate of the clerk, under his hand and official seal. When the deed of a married man whose wife is insane or a lunatic shall be executed, probated and registered in accordance with law, it shall convey all the estate and interest of the grantor in the land conveyed free and exempt from the dower rights and all other interests of his wife: Provided, this section shall not apply to the homestead of the husband. 1905, c. 138, ss. 1, 3.

Note. For probate of such deed, see s. 1000.

NOTE. For other rights of husband and wife, see Married Women.
For validity of marriage settlements, see s. 963.

IV. FRAUDULENT.

960. Void as to creditors. For avoiding and abolishing feigned, covinous and fraudulent gifts, grants, alienations, conveyances, bonds, suits, judgments and executions, as well of lands and tenements as of goods and chattels, which may be contrived and devised of fraud, to the purpose and intent to delay, hinder and defraud creditors and others of their just and lawful actions and debts, every gift, grant, alienation, bargain and conveyance of lands, tenements and hereditaments, goods and chattels, by writing or otherwise, and every bond, suit, judgment and execution, at any time had or made, to or for any intent or purpose last before declared and expressed, shall be deemed and taken (only as against that person, his heirs, executors, administrators and assigns, whose actions, debts, accounts, damages, penalties and forfeitures, by such covinous or fraudulent devices and practices aforesaid, are, shall, or might be in anywise disturbed, hindered, delayed or defrauded), to be utterly void and of no effect;

any pretense, color, feigned consideration, expressing of use, or any other matter or thing to the contrary notwithstanding; and in all actions by creditors to set aside gifts, grants, alienations and conveyances of lands and tenements and judgments purporting to be liens on the same on the ground that such gifts, grants, alienations, conveyances and judgments are feigned, covinous and fraudulent hereunder, it shall be no defense to the action to allege and prove that the lands and tenements alleged to be so conveyed or encumbered do not exceed in value the homestead allowed by law as an exemption: Provided, that nothing in this section shall be construed to authorize the sale under execution or other final process obtained on any debt during the continuance of the homestead, of any interest in such land as may be exempt as a homestead.

Code, s. 1545; 1893, c. 78; R. C., c. 50, s. 1; 50 Edw. III., c. 6; 13 Eliz., c. 5, s. 2; 1715, c. 7, s. 4.

961. When void as to purchasers. Every conveyance, charge, lease or encumbrance of any lands or hereditaments, goods and chattels, if the same be made with the actual intent in fact to defraud such person as hath purchased or shall purchase in fee-simple or for lives or years the same lands or hereditaments, goods and chattels, or to defraud such as shall purchase any rent or profit out of the same, shall be deemed utterly void against such person and others claiming under him who shall purchase for the full value thereof the same lands or hereditaments, goods and chattels, or rents or profits out of the same, without notice before and at the time of his purchase of the conveyance, charge, lease or incumbrance, by him alleged to have been made with intent to defraud; and possession taken or held by or for the person claiming under such alleged fraudulent conveyance, charge, lease or encumbrance shall be always deemed and taken as notice in law of the same.

Code, s. 1546; R. C., c. 50, s. 2; 27 Eliz., c. 4, s. 2; 1840, c. 28, ss. 1, 2.

962. Gifts, indebtedness evidence of fraud. No voluntary gift or settlement of property by one indebted shall be deemed or taken to be void in law, as to creditors of the donor or settler prior to such gift or settlement, by reason merely of such indebtedness, if property, at the time of making such gift or settlement, fully sufficient and available for the satisfaction of his then creditors, be retained. by such donor or settler; but the indebtedness of the donor or settler at such time shall be held and taken, as well with respect to creditors prior as creditors subsequent to such gift or settlement, to be evidence only from which an intent to delay, hinder or defraud creditors may be inferred; and in any trial shall, as such, be submitted by the court to the jury, with such observations as may be right and proper. Code, s. 1547; R. C., c. 50, s. 3; 1840, c. 28, ss. 3, 4.

963. Marriage settlements, as to existing creditors. Every contract and settlement of property made by any man and woman in consideration of a marriage between them, for the benefit of such man or woman, or of their issue, whether the same be made before or after marriage, shall be void as against creditors of the parties making the same respectively, existing at the time of such marriage, if the same is antenuptial, or at the time of making such contract or settlement, if the same is postnuptial.

Code, ss. 1270, 1820; 1871-2, c. 193, s. 11; R. C., c. 37, s. 25; 1785, c. 238, s. 2. Note. See also, s. 2108.

964. Bona fide conveyances to innocent purchaser for value, valid. Nothing contained in the preceding sections shall be construed to impeach or make void any conveyance, interest, limitation of use or uses, of or in any lands or tenements, goods or chattels, bona fide made, upon and for good consideration, to any person not having notice of such fraud.

Code, s. 1548; R. C., c. 50, s. 4; 13 Eliz., c. 5, s. 6; 1785, c. 7, s. 6.

965. Innocent purchaser for value protected against illegal consideration. No conveyance or mortgage, made to secure the payment of any debt or the performance of any contract or agreement, shall be deemed void as against any purchaser for valuable or other good consideration of the estate or property conveyed, sold, mortgaged or assigned, by reason that the consideration of such debt, contract or agreement shall be forbidden by law, if such purchaser, at the time of his purchase, shall not have had notice of the unlawful consideration of such debt, contract or agreement.

Code, s. 1549; R. C., c. 50, s. 5; 1842, c. 70.

966. Purchasers entitled to remedy of creditors. Purchasers of estates previously conveyed in fraud of creditors or purchasers shall have like remedy and relief as creditors might have had before the sale and purchase.

Code, s. 1550; R. C., c. 50, s. 6.

NOTE. For fraudulent trading, see s. 2118.

V. ASSIGNMENTS FOR CREDITORS.

967. Debts mature on execution of; schedule of preferred debts filed. Upon the execution of any voluntary deed of trust or deed of assignment for the benefit of creditors, all debts of the maker thereof shall become due and payable at once; a schedule of all preferred debts shall be filed under oath by the assignor in the office of the clerk of the superior court of the county in which such assignment