Hartman v. McCrary

59 Mo. App. 571, 1894 Mo. App. LEXIS 483
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 3, 1894
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 59 Mo. App. 571 (Hartman v. McCrary) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hartman v. McCrary, 59 Mo. App. 571, 1894 Mo. App. LEXIS 483 (Mo. Ct. App. 1894).

Opinion

Smith, P. J.

This is an action by the father and master to recover damages for the debauching of his daughter. The petition states that the defendant did wrongfully debauch and carnally know, Anice Hartman, then and there being the daughter and servant of plaintiff, whereby the said Anice Hartman became. [574]*574pregnant and sick with child, and so remained for the space of nine months, when she was delivered of a child, whereby said Anice -Hartman became and was during all of the period aforesaid, unable to do or perform the necessary affairs and business óf the plaintiff, and plaintiff was thereby deprived of her services and society, and was further obliged to, and did, lay out and expend large sums of money for medicines, nursing, and medical attendance and care of said Anice Hartman and in the delivery of said child; that by reason of defendant’s said wicked, willful and wrongful acts, plaintiff has been greatly injured in his feelings, and has suffered great anxiety and pain of mind, and has lost the services and comfort of the society of his said daughter, all to the damage of plaintiff in the sum of $5,000, for which he prays judgment.

The answer was a general denial. There was a trial, resulting in a judgment for plaintiff in the sum of $1,000, to reverse which the defendant has appealed. The defendant objects that the trial court erred in refusing his third instruction, which was to the effect that under the pleadings and proof, the verdict of the jury should be for defendant.

It is quite true that the evidence tends to show that the plaintiff’s daughter was at the time of the commission of the grievance, of which he complains, twenty years of age, and that for several years prior thereto she had occasionally worked out by the week, receiving her wages therefor, which she applied to her own use, with the approbation of the plaintiff. It further tends to prove that the contract under which she went to work for McCrary, the defendant’s father, was made by her, and that the plaintiff neither claimed nor received any part of her wages therefor. But while these facts indisputably appear, it further appears also that when not employed elsewhere she would remain [575]*575at home- with, plaintiff, doing “outside manual labor on the plaintiff’s farm.,” She would work just like the rest of the plaintiff’s family, and the plaintiff paid her no wages. He would furnish her clothes when she did not earn enough out to buy them herself. This was the case before as well as after she was of age. The evidence further discloses that plaintiff’s daughter was debauched while she was in the employment of McCrary and away from the home of plaintiff.

It has long been understood that the gist of an action like this, is that o'f master and servant and the loss of service, very slight service is sufficient to establish the relation cle facto between father and daughter, yet it is requisite to show some service in order to have that effect. The relation may be actual or constructive, but one or the other must be established at the time of the injury, or the action will fail. When the daughter is under age, unless emancipated, the law implies the relation. But if she be of age, she is in law emancipated from parental authority and may dispose of her time and earnings at pleasure. In the latter case, in order that the father may maintain an action of this kind, the relation of master and servant must exist at the time of the injury.

Postlewait v. Parkes, 3 Burr. 1878, adjudged in the court of King’s Bench in 1766, was where plaintiff’s daughter, being twenty-five years of age, hired herself to one Saul as a servant and went to live with him, serving him for some timer During her service she was gotten with child by the defendant, becoming in consequence of her pregnancy unable to perform further service for Saul, she was received by plaintiff, her father, who lodged, boarded and maintained her while lying-in at his own expense. The question arose whether plaintiff could maintain the action, which was trespass vi et amis, for assault upon his daughter and [576]*576getting lier with child. The declaration concluded with a per quod servitium amisit. Lord Mansfield, in speaking for the court, said: “There can be no doubt but that the court were all of opinion that the action could not be maintained.”

In McDaniel v. Edwards, 3 Iredell, 408, it was declared that an action by a father for the seduction of his daughter would not lie when the daughter was of full age and not living in her father’s family, but in the actual employment of another person, though her father was to receive a part of her wages, and citing with approval Phipps v. Garland, 3 Dev. & Bat., 44. In Mercer v. Walmsley, 5 Harr. & J., 27, it was ruled that if the daughter is living with her father rendering service, that connection is sufficient, although she is over twenty-one years. This case is quoted with approval in Greenwood v. Greenwood, 28 Md. 370. In Lamb v. Taylor, 67 Md. 85, it was determined that a father may maintain an action for the seduction of his adult daughter, provided she is living with him and rendering him any service, however slight. And a similar statement of the law was made in Martin v. Payne, 9 Johnson (N. Y.), 385.

In Dain v. Wycoff, 3 Selden, (N. Y.) 191, it was said that the action is founded on loss of service, and in order to maintain-it, the relation must be actual or constructive. If the plaintiff is not receiving the services of his daughter at the time, he must be in a situation to have the legal right to command them at pleasure. Vosel v. Cole, 10 Mo. 634, was an action by plaintiff for debauching his daughter. The defendant pleaded several pleas, one of which was, that at the timelplaintiff’s daughter became pregnant said daughter was not the servant of the mother but was over twenty-one years of age and was then and there living and cohabiting with Kioto, etc. In respect to this plea [577]*577Judge Napton, who delivered the opinion of the court, remarked that it was had. '‘When á daughter is over twenty-one years of age there must exist some kind of service to entitle the parent to sue, but the slightest acts have been held to constitute the relation of master and servant. The cohabitation of Klote charged in this plea is not stated to have occurred elsewhere than under the roof of the plaintiff.” Citing Martin v. Payne, 4 Johnson, 175; Hornkeith v. Barr, 8 Serg. & Rawle, 36; Appelgate v. Ruke, 2 Marsh. 127.

The result of these eases, including that of Vossel v. Cole, is that a parent may recover for debauching his daughter over the age of twenty-one years, if the relation of master and servant then existed, though she be then residing with or in the employment of another. This conclusion is further supported by what is said in Ellington v. Ellington, 5 Morris (Miss.), 329; Boyd v. Boyd, 8 Black, 113; Lee v. Hodges, 13 Gratt. 728; Kendrick v. McBeary, 11 Ga. 728; Roberts v. Connelly, 11 Ala. 239; Parker v. Meek, 3 Sand. (Tenn.) 31; Melluhall v. Millwood, 11 N. Y. 343; Sutton v. Huffman, 32 N. J. Law, 58.

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Bluebook (online)
59 Mo. App. 571, 1894 Mo. App. LEXIS 483, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hartman-v-mccrary-moctapp-1894.