FELONY, crimes. An offence which occasions a total forfeiture1 of. either lands or goods, or both, at common law, to which capital or other punishment may be super-added, according to the degree of guilt2. 4 Bl. Com, 94, 5; 1 Russ. Cr. *42; 1 Chit. Pract. 14; Co. Litt . 391; 1 Hawk3. P. C. c. 37; 5 Wheat. R. 153, 159.
FEMALE. This term denotes the sex which bears young.
2. It is a general rule, that the young of female animals which belong to us, are ours, nam fetus4 ventrem sequitur. Inst. 2, 1, 19; Dig. 6, 1, 5, 2. The rule is, in general, the same with regard to slaves; but when a female slave comes into. a free state, even without the consent of her master, and is there delivered of a child, the latter is free. Vide Feminine; Gender5; Masculine.
FEME, or, more properly,
FEMME. Woman.
2. This word is frequently used in law. Baron6 and feme, hushand and wife; feme covert7, a. married woman; feme sole, a single woman.
3. A feme covert, is a married woman. A feme covert may sue and be sued at law, and will be treated as a feme sole, when the hushand is civiliter mortuus. Bac. Ab. Baron and Feme, M; see article, Parties to Actions, part 1, section l, §7, n. 3; or where, as it has been decided8 in England, he is an alien and has left the country, or has never been in it. 2 Esp. R. 554; 1 B. & P. 357. And courts of equity9 will treat a married woman as a, feme sole, so as to enable her to sue or be sued, whenever her hushand has abjured10 the realm, been transported for felony, or is civilly dead. And when she has a separate property, she may sue her hushand in respect of such property, with the assist ance of a next friend of her own selection. Story, Eq. Pl. §61; Story, Eq . Jur. §1368; and see article, Parties to a suit in equity, 1, n. 2; Bouv. Inst. Index, h. t.
4. Coverture subjects a woman to some duties and disabilities, and gives her some rights and immunities11, to which she would not be entitled as a feme sole. These are considered under the articles, Marriage, and Wife.
5. A feme sole trader, is a married woman who trades and deals on her own account, independently of her hushand. By the custom of London, a feme covert, being a sole trader, may sue and be sued in the city courts, as a feme sole, with reference to her transactions in London. Bac. Ab. Baron and Feme, M. 6. In Pennsylvania, where any mariners12 or others go abroad, leaving their wives at shop-keeping, or to work for their livelihood13 at any other trade, all such wives are declared to be feme sole traders, with ability to sue and be sued, without naming the hushands. Act of February 22, 1718. See Poth. De la Puissance du Mari, n. 20.
7. By a more recent act, April 11, 1848, of the same state, it is provided, that in all cases where debts may be contracted for necessaries for the support and maintenance of the family of any married woman, it shall be lawful14 for the creditor15, in such case, to institute suit against the hushand and wife for the price of such necessaries, and after obtaining a judgment16, have an execution against the hushand alone and if no property of the said hushand be found, the officer executing the said writ17 shall so return, and thereupon an alias18 execution may be issued, which may be levied19 upon and satisfied out of the separate property of the wife, secured to her under the provisions of the first section of this act. Provided, That judgment shall not be rendered against the wife, in such joint20 action, unless it shall have be proved that the debt sued for in such action, was contracted by the wife, or incurred21 for articles necessary for the support of the family of the said hushand and wife.
