FEMME. Woman.
     2. This word is frequently used in law. Baron and feme, husband and 
wife; feme covert, 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 husband is civiliter 
mortuus. Bac. Ab. Baron and Feme, M; see article, Parties to Actions, part 
1, section l, Sec. 7, n. 3; or where, as it has been decided 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 equity will treat a married woman as a, 
feme sole, so as to enable her to sue or be sued, whenever her husband has 
abjured the realm, been transported for felony, or is civilly dead. And when 
she has a separate property, she may sue her husband in respect of such 
property, with the assistance of a next friend of her own selection. Story, 
Eq. Pl. Sec. 61; Story, Eq. Jur. Sec. 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 immunities, to which she would not be entitled as 
a feme sole. These are considered under the articles, Marriage, (q.v.) and 
Wife. (q.v.) 
     5. A feme sole trader, is a married woman who trades and deals on her 
own account, independently of her husband. 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 mariners or others go abroad, leaving 
their wives at shop-keeping, or to work for their livelihood at any other 
trade, all such wives are declared to be feme sole traders, with ability to 
sue and be sued, without naming the husbands. 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 lawful for the creditor, in such case, to institute suit against the 
husband and wife for the price of such necessaries, and after obtaining a 
judgment, have an execution against the husband alone and if no property of 
the said husband be found, the officer executing the said writ shall so 
return, and thereupon an alias execution may be issued, which may be levied 
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 joint action, 
unless it shall have be proved that the debt sued for in such action, was 
contracted by the wife, or incurred for articles necessary for the support 
of the family of the said husband and wife.