children from the prior marriage. 14 Vt. at 107. There was no consideration for the conveyance
beyond love and goodwill, and the husband, through a lease, “secured to himself the possession
and use of all the property, so conveyed, during his life, upon a nominal annual rent for the real
estate.” Id. Under the trust agreement, in addition to the real property, the children would be
entitled to distribution of whatever remained of the husband’s personal property at the time of the
husband’s death. Id. at 122.
¶ 14. The Court found that the conveyance was “made with the intent to defeat the [wife]
of her dower in the lands, and her share of the personal estate, of her . . . husband.” Id. at 107.
The wife had a statutory right to at least one-third of her husband’s personal estate after payment
of debts, and “she cannot be deprived of [this right] by the will of her husband, nor by jointure,
except at her election.” Id. at 120.3 “Though the [dower] right may be inchoate,” the Court
explained, “it should be protected against the mala fide acts of the husband.”4 Id. Ultimately, the
3
“Jointure” means “[a] woman’s freehold life estate in land, made in consideration of
marriage in lieu of dower and to be enjoyed by her only after her husband’s death; a settlement
under which a wife receives such an estate.” Jointure, Black’s Law Dictionary (10th ed. 2014).
4
The term “mala fide” means “in or with bad faith.” Mala fide, Black’s Law Dictionary
(10th ed. 2014).
7
Court concluded that the wife had certain “rights as should be recognized, protected and enforced;
that the attempt to elude these rights, in the manner disclosed in this case, was mala fide, and a
fraud upon the law and upon the marital rights of the [wife], and that as a consequence, the