Bedsworth v. Bowman

104 Mo. 44
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedOctober 15, 1890
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 104 Mo. 44 (Bedsworth v. Bowman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bedsworth v. Bowman, 104 Mo. 44 (Mo. 1890).

Opinion

Macearlane, J.

— This is an action of replevin brought by plaintiffs, who are husband and wife, to recover from defendant the possession of certain personal property, which is alleged to be the separate property of the wife.

The facts, so far as they affect the question at issue are, briefly, as follows: Plaintiff, Louisa Bedsworth, is the wife of her coplaintiff, Lamar Bedsworth, and the property in dispute is the separate property of the wife as defined under section 8296, Revised Statutes, 1879. The husband created an indebtedness for necessaries for his wife and the family. A note was afterwards given for the amount of such indebtedness, which was executed by both husband and wife. Suit was instituted on the note against the husband and judgment rendered against him alone. Upon this judgment an execution was issued and placed in the hands of the defendant, who was sheriff of the county of LaEayette, who levied it upon this property. This replevin suit was in the interest of the wife for the possession of the property.

These facts appearing upon the trial, the court directed a verdict for plaintiff and judgment was entered accordingly. An appeal was taken by defendant to the Kansas City court of appeals, where the judgment was affirmed, but one of the judges of said court being of the opinion that the decision was in conflict with the decision in the case of Alexander v. Lydick, 80 Mo. 341, the record was certified to this court for its determination of the case.

Waiving altogether the fact that the note was made by both husband and wife, the question for decision is whether the statutory separate personal property of the wife can be subjected to the satisfaction of a judgment against the husband alone, when the debt for which it [47]*47was rendered was created by the husband for necessaries for the wife and family.

The statute (R. S. 1879, sec. 3296) provides that the personal property of the wife shall “be and remain her separate property, and under her sole control, and shall not be liable to be taken by any process of law for the debts of the husband.” Language more simple, explicit and unambiguous could hardly have been used to express the intention of the legislature. To this part of the act, which defines the rights secured to the wife in this character of property, no room is left for interpretation. Every right of the husband previously existing, not only of disposal but of control, is excluded.

This property, then, having been made the separate property of the wife, she became clothed with all the rights and subject to all the liabilities attending a married woman, who held like property to her separate use before the enactment of the statute. Among these rights was that of obtaining credit on the faith of her separate estate, and among the liabilities was that of having the property charged by a proceeding in equity with the debts thus created, and sold for their satisfaction. That the wife was a necessary party to such a suit, and that a judgment against the husband alone would not bind her or her property, has never been questioned. The proceeding was directed against the property, and designed to divest the wife of her estate therein. Story, Eq., sec. 1397; Whitesides v. Cannon, 23 Mo. 457 ; Kimm v. Weippert, 46 Mo. 532 ; Davis v. Smith, 75 Mo. 225.

Indeed, the proposition is not questioned in this case, but counsel for defendant contends that the subsequent portion of the statute qualifies and limits the estate of the wife to such an extent that it does not become a separate estate in its technical common-law sense, but is simply a statutory estate, in which the [48]*48husband has such an interest as enables him to charge it for necessaries without the consent of the wife, and ■enables the creditor to subject it to the payment of his -debt under legal process against the husband alone.

So much of the statute as need be quoted is as follows : The personal property of the wife shall “be and remain her separate property, and under her sole control, and shall not be liable to be taken by any process ■of law for the debts of the husband ; * * * but such property shall be subject to execution * * * for .any debt or liability of her husband created for necessa.ries for the wife and family.”

I am unable to observe any inconsistency between the absolute control of the wife over her property given in the former clause of the section and her obligation to ■contribute of her means to the support of herself and family in the latter. Prior to this statute the duty of the entire support of the family was imposed upon the husband. To compensate for this exclusive burden, he was entitled to the personal property of the wife absolutely ; when he is excluded from all right and interest in the property of the wife, it is but just that the property should be subject to the necessary support ■of the family. It is very clear that the provision of the statute making the separate property of the wife .subject to executions for debts contracted by the husband .for necessaries was not designed to qualify or limit the rights of the wife or to enlarge those of the husband, but simply to impose on the wife the legal, in addition to the moral, duty of contributing to the family support. The legislature unquestionably intended to vest in the wife the absolute and unqualified right to the use :and control of her own property in all respects as other -owners, as the husband himself. In respect to property rights the unity growing out of the matrimonial relation was destroyed. The wife was given the same ■ownership, possession and enjoyment of her property .as she would have were she sole and unmarried. [49]*49Emerson v. Clayton, 32 Ill. 493 ; Vankirk v. Skillman, 34 N. J. 114; Blair v. Railroad, 89 Mo. 391.

It may have been within the power of the legislature to make provision that the property of the wife, in so far as it might be required in the support of the family, could be taken under process against the husband alone. Such a meaning is so at variance with the evident intent of this act that it cannot be incorporated into it by implication. When all parts of an act are consistent with each other and the intention is plain and unambiguous, we are not at liberty to go outside the law to seek an intent more in accord with our preconceived views than is manifest from the plain terms of the statute itself. State v. Gammon, 73 Mo. 421 ; State v. Hays, 78 Mo. 600.

There is nothing remarkable or unusual in the principle incorporated into the law under this legislation, when viewed from an unprejudiced standpoint in regard to the domestic relations. The husband is and ever has been, under certain conditions, liable for any debt created by the wife for necessaries for herself and family. Why should not the wife be abo for such debts created by the husband? No reason can be given where the wife owns the property. It was never held that the husband had only such a qualified interest in his own property that it could be taken under execution against the wife. To collect, from the husband, a debt contracted by the wife, for necessaries, no one would think for a moment of doing by legal process against the wife alone. Formerly the husband was liable for the ante-nuptial debts of the wife. To satisfy such liability the legal process ran against the husband and not the wife alone. The principle in these cases is not different from the principle recognized and enjoined by this'statute.

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Bluebook (online)
104 Mo. 44, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bedsworth-v-bowman-mo-1890.