Married persons to hold real and personal property as separate property

451.250. Married persons to hold real and personal property as separate property — liable for what. — 1. All real estate and any personal property, including rights in action, belonging to any man or woman at his or her marriage, or which may have come to him or her during coverture, by gift, bequest or inheritance, or by purchase with his or her separate money or means, or be due as the wages of his or her separate labor, or has grown out of any violation of his or her personal rights, shall, together with all income, increase and profits thereof, be and remain his or her separate property and under his or her sole control, and shall not be liable to be taken by any process of law for the debts of his wife or her husband.

2. This section shall not affect the title of any husband or wife to any personal property reduced to his or her possession with the express assent of his or her spouse; provided, that said personal property shall not be deemed to have been reduced to possession by the husband or wife by his or her use, occupancy, care or protection thereof, but the same shall remain his or her separate property, unless by the terms of said assent, in writing, full authority shall have been given by the husband or wife to the spouse to sell, encumber or otherwise dispose of the same for his or her own use and benefit, but such property shall be subject to execution for the payments of the debts of the spouse contracted before or during marriage, and for any debt or liability of his or her spouse created for necessaries for the spouse or family; and any such married man or woman may, in his or her own name and without joining his or her spouse, as a party plaintiff institute and maintain any action, in any of the courts of this state having jurisdiction, for the recovery of any such personal property, including rights in action, as aforesaid, with the same force and effect as if such married man or woman was * not married; provided, any judgment for costs in any such proceeding rendered against any such married spouse, may be satisfied out of any separate property of such married spouse subject to execution; provided, that before any such execution shall be levied upon any separate estate of a married spouse, he or she shall have been made a party to the action, and all questions involved shall have been therein determined, and shall be recited in the judgment and the execution thereon.

(RSMo 1939 § 3390, A.L. 2001 H.B. 537)

Prior revisions: 1929 § 3003; 1919 § 7328; 1909 § 8309

*Word "a" appears here in original rolls.

(1954) Where husband and wife each furnished funds to purchase farm and each supplied livestock and contributed to purchase of tools, but husband actually controlled and operated farm, wife was not entitled, after eight years, to one-half of proceeds of sale of some of the stock and tools. Herbert v. Herbert (A.), 272 S.W.2d 705.

(1955) Wife held entitled to sue husband under § 451.250 for premarital personal tort committed by him in automobile accident. Hamilton v. Fulkerson (Mo.), 285 S.W.2d 642. Comment Mo. L. Rev. Vol. XXII, p. 216 (1957).