New South Wales Consolidated Acts

MATRIMONIAL CAUSES ACT 1899 - SECT 37

37 Effect of decree

(1) A decree for a judicial separation shall have the same effect as a decree for a divorce a mensâ et thoro would have had in England according to the law in force before the passing of the Imperial Act twentieth and twenty-first Victoria chapter eighty-five and such other effect as herein mentioned.

(2) In every case of a judicial separation the wife shall from the date of the decree and whilst the separation continues be considered as a feme sole with respect to property of every description which she may acquire or which may come to her or devolve upon her.

(3) Such property may be disposed of by her in all respects as a feme sole and on her decease the same shall in case she dies intestate go as the same would have gone if her husband had been then dead.

(4) If after a decree of judicial separation a wife again cohabits with her husband all such property as she may be entitled to when such cohabitation takes place shall be held to her separate use subject however to any agreement in writing made between herself and her husband when separate.

(5) The provisions of this section shall be deemed to extend to property to which such wife has become or shall become entitled as executrix administratrix or trustee since the decree of separation and the death of the testator or intestate shall be deemed to be the time when such wife became entitled as executrix or administratrix.