Page 76 - The Circle of Life

The wife could also before the change took place buy necessities for the house

which lead to us saying she was in charge of the kitchen only. In such cases she
could even get credit but as you can imagine it was a very narrow view on what
necessities is. All in all not a good place to be.

When a husband defrauds his wife

As you know I am a man who believes in love and very much in love with my
American Patriot. Accordingly it grieves me to admit that through the ages many

men tried (with varying degrees of success) to defraud their wives. Since the law

is neutral and protects both sides it stepped in and below is a short discussion
on such disgusting behaviour. What would the fraud be? Well, hiding of assets is

one. Another would be to be reckless with the joint estate or gambling it away.
Anything meant to be to detriment of the estate falls under this topic. You would

not believe what a man can get up to if given the legal power (opportunity) to
do so. Not all men are honourable and some are shysters.

Because it is only fair a husband who defrauds his wife while dealing with the
joint estate most probably will be ordered to make good the loss out of his half-

share. Where needed his wife can apply for an interdict to stop him from dealing
with the joint estate at any High Court and usually these orders will divide the

joint estate. As is the norm the costs for this will be paid from the half-share of
the unsuccessful partner. In real life this did not happen often enough. Many

women were too ashamed to admit to such things which are indeed sad. The law

is neutral and unless you invoke it it is seldom able to act unilaterally.

Legal proceedings

Marring in community of property takes away your right to act on your own as
you did before your marriage and the spouse needs written permission (consent)

from the other spouse to start or defend legal action against a third party
(obviously not against each other). The reason is it affects the join estate.

The exceptions to this rule is where the action is regarding a separate property

not part of the joint estate and for recovery of damages as in defamation under
the laws of delict. This is not a claim for financial loss where consent is needed

75