Snyder

delivered the opinion of the court. Wells, Justice, concurred.

Our Practice Act gives to a married woman the right to sue without her husband where the action concerns her separate property.

Under the acts defining the rights of husband and wife, the *87 property of “ the wife owned by her before marriage, and that acquired afterwards by gift, bequest, demise, or descent, shall be her separate property.”

The rents and profits of her separate property are declared to be common property.

The 14th section of the act provides, “In every marriage hereafter contracted in this State, the rights of husband and wife shall be governed by this act, unless there is a marriage contract containing stipulations contrary thereto.”

The record discloses that there was a marriage contract between the plaintiff and her husband, by which, notwithstanding the marriage, she was to have the entire management of her separate estate, that its rents and profits were also to be a part of her separate estate, as was also to be all property acquired by her after marriage, whether by purchase or otherwise.

It is now urged that the statute is in derogation of the common law, and must be strictly construed.…