15.- (1) Where the gaol surgeon of a county or district in which a married woman, who is not confined in a hospital for the insane, resides, and another medical practitioner to be named by the Judge, each certifies, Form 1, that he has personally examined such married woman and that he is of opinion that she is insane, and a Judge of the county or district court of the county or district in which such married woman resides, or a Judge of the Supreme Court, also certifies, Form 2, that he has personally examined such married woman, and that from such examination and from the evidence adduced before him, if he thinks it expedient to hear evidence, he is of opinion that such married woman is insane, the Judge may make the like order as by the next preceding section is authorized.

(2) The examination and certificates required by this section shall not be acted upon by the Judge unless all are made within a period of one month, and the application shall not be entertained unless it is made within one month after the day upon which the last of such examinations took place.

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16. Where a Judge makes an order under either of the next preceding two sections, with reference to any parcel of land, he may afterwards make orders in respect of other sales or mortgages by the husband, on the evidence adduced on the first application, and on other evidence which may satisfy him of the continued insanity of the wife.

17.- (1) Where the wife of an owner of land has been living apart from her husband for five years or more, and the husband sells and conveys, or has sold and conveyed the land, or mortgages, or has mortgaged the same, the wife not having joined in the conveyance or mortgage, and the purchaser or mortgagee not having had notice that the grantor or mortgagor had a wife living at the time, such purchaser or mortgagee may during the lifetime of the grantor or mortgagor apply to a Judge of the Supreme Court or to a Judge of the county or district court of the county or district in which he resides for an order enabling him to convey or mortgage the land free from the dower of such wife, which may be obtained subject to the like conditions, and by the like proceedings, as are provided by section 14.

(2) A person claiming under the grantee or mortgagee shall be entitled to apply in like manner and obtain like relief founded on the right which such grantee or mortgagee had, or on the applicant's own interest having been acquired by purchase for value in good faith without notice that such owner had a wife at the time of the conveyance or mortgage.

18.- (1) An order under any of the preceding sections may be made in duplicate, or in as many parts as are necessary, and shall be signed by the Judge, and may be registered in the registry office of the registry division wherein the land to which the same relates is situate, upon its production and deposit, without any proof thereof; and such registration may take place either before or after the execution of the conveyance or mortgage made in pursuance of such order.

(2) The order may be endorsed or written upon the conveyance or mortgage, in which case it shall be registered as part thereof.

(3) For the registration of the order including all necessary entries and certificates, the registrar shall be entitled to a fee of $1, unless the order is endorsed or written upon the conveyance or mortgage, in which case no fee shall be payable in respect of the registration thereof.

(4) If the order is endorsed or written upon the conveyance or mortgage the land may be described in the order by reference to the description contained in the conveyance or mortgage.

19.- (1) No action of dower shall lie where the dowress has joined in a deed to convey the land, or to release her dower therein, to a purchaser for value, though the acknowledgment required by law at the time may not have been made or taken, or though there may have been an informality in the making, taking or certifying such acknowledgment.

(2) Nor shall an action of dower lie where a husband before the 2nd day of March, 1877, duly conveyed land of which he was owner, and his wife before that day executed a deed or conveyance for the purpose of barring her dower, notwithstanding her husband was not a party to such deed or conveyance, and the deed or conveyance shall be taken and adjudged to be valid and effectual to have barred her dower in the lands in which such deed or conveyance professed to bar dower, notwithstanding the absence or want of a certificate touching her consent to be barred of her dower, and notwithstanding any irregularity, informality or defect in the certificate, if any, and notwithstanding that such deed or conveyance may not have been executed, acknowledged or certified, as required by any Act on or before such day in force, respecting the barring of dower.

20. Where a wife has joined or hereafter joins in a conveyance or mortgage purporting to convey or mortgage land, or has signed or signs, otherwise than as a witness, a conveyance or mortgage by which her husband conveys or mortgages or purports to convey or mortgage land, but the conveyance or mortgage contains no words purporting to release her dower or other estate or interest in the land, the conveyance or mortgage shall have the same effect as if it contained a bar of dower by the wife and she thereby barred her dower in the land, but as to conveyances and mortgages executed before the 16th day of April, 1895, this section shall not be construed as prejudicing or affecting the rights of third persons claiming the land or some interest therein under a subsequent conveyance or mortgage executed by the wife before the said 16th day of April, 1895, containing a conveyance or release of her dower or other estate or interest.

The provision of s. 20 was enacted in 1895 by the statute 58 V. c. 25, ss. 1, 2, in consequence of a decision that where a mortgage did not contain a bar of dower, though the wife was a party to and executed the mortgage, the instrument should not be reformed by the insertion of a bar of dower, there being no consideration to support a contract by the wife with the mortgagee to bar her dower (q).

Dower may be barred by jointure, as regulated by the Statute of Uses (r), or by ante-nuptial settlement in lieu of dower (s).

A conveyance to a husband may be so drawn that the husband may convey the land and defeat dower. Thus, a conveyance may be made to a third person to such uses as the husband (the real purchaser) shall appoint, and in default of and till appointment to the use of the husband in fee. Under such limitations dower attaches, subject to be divested on exercise of the power of appointment (t).