When a married man is incapacitated for supporting his family, or deserts, neglects, or abandons his wife, or by ill-usage or criminal conduct gives her cause to live apart from him, or is committed to the Commissioner of Corrections, if the wife is of age, a presiding judge of the Superior Court, upon her complaint for that purpose, may authorize such wife to sell and convey her real estate, or personal property that came to the husband by reason of the civil marriage and that remains in the State undisposed of by him. Such judge may authorize a person holding money or other personal estate, to which the husband is entitled in her right, to pay or deliver the same to the wife. A married woman who is of age and lives apart from her husband and has lived apart from her husband more than one year from any cause other than her adultery, and who has real estate in her own right, may petition a presiding judge of the Superior Court for leave to sell and convey such real estate. (Amended 1973, No. 193 (Adj. Sess.), § 3, eff. April 9, 1974; 2009, No. 3, § 12a, eff. Sept. 1, 2009.)