Johns Hopkins Hospital v. Delhamer

255 A.2d 117, 434 Pa. 474, 1969 Pa. LEXIS 480

• Court: Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
• Decided: June 27, 1969
• Docket: Appeal, 24
• Status: Published

Opinions

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Cohen,

Since the passage of the Act of April 11, 1848, P. L. 536, 48 P.S. §§64 and 116, we have held on innumerable occasions that in order to bind a married woman’s separate estate for medical services rendered herself and family it must be shown that those medical services were rendered at her request and on her credit.

Appellant would have us ignore the long line of cases that would permit a creditor to recover against the wife’s individual estate only in the event that the debt was contracted by the wife. Moore v. Copley, 165 Pa. 294, 30 Atl. 829 (1895); Sawtelle’s Appeal, 84 Pa. 306 (1877); Berger v. Clark, 79 Pa. 340 (1876); Parke v. Kleeber & Bros., 37 Pa. 251 (1860), and Murray v. Keyes, 35 Pa. 384 (1860). The legislature has had ample opportunity to amend the Act of 1848 and disaffirm the interpretation placed upon it since Murray v. Keyes, supra. Since the legislature has refused to do this, we will reaffirm our interpretation of the Act.

In this litigation we do not find it necessary to determine whether a liquor license in decedent’s náme and subject to inheritance tax as part of decedent’s estate is to be considered an asset of decedent’s estate for distributive purposes. Jurisdiction to determine whether a liquor license in decedent’s name at his death was an asset of decedent’s estate is in the orphans’ court; thus any determination made in the court of common pleas was without judicial competence.

Order affirmed.

Mr. Justice Jones took no part in the consideration or decision of this case.