cui in vit

CUI IN VITA. The name of a writ of entry for a widow against a person to 
whom the husband had, in his lifetime, aliened the lands of the wife. F. N. 
B. 193. This writ was founded sometimes on the stat. 13 Ed. 1. c. 3, and 
sometimes on the common law. The object of this statute, was to enable the 
wife to avoid a judgment to recover her land which had been rendered on the 
default or confession of her husband. It is now of no use in England, 
because the stat. 32 H. VIII. c. 28, Sec. 6, provides that no act of the 
husband, whether fine, feoffment, or other act of the husband during 
coverture, shall prejudice the wife. Both these statutes are reported as in 
force in Pennsylvania. 3 Bin. Appx. See Booth on Real Actions, 186; 6 Rep. 
8, 9, Forrers' Case. Still, that part of the stat. 13 Ed. I. c. 8, which 
relates to the pleadings and evidence in such cases is important if it can 
be enforced in the modern action of ejectment, viz: that which requires the 
tenant of the lands to show his right according to the form of the writ he 
sued out against the husband. See Report of the Commissioners to revise the 
Civil Code of Pennsylvania, Jan. 16, 1835, pp. 90, 91.