Atkins v. Grist

Citations

• 44 Pa. Super. 310
• 1910 Pa. Super. LEXIS 171

Syllabus

<p>Husband and wife — Debts of wife — Principal and surety — Judgment—■ Opening judgment.</p> <p>1. Formerly the capacity of a married woman to contract was exceptional and her disability general; now the disability is exceptional and her capacity general; the burden is on her when she seeks to avoid her contract to bring it within one of the few exceptions. Since the passage of the Acts of June 3, 1887, P. L. 332, and June 8, 1893, P. L. 344, her confession of judgment is presumably valid, and when she seeks to avoid it it devolves upon her to show affirmatively, not only the fact of marriage, but the presence of those circumstances which relieve her from liability. The rule is not different when she executes a judgment note jointly with her husband.</p> <p>2. Prima facie, when husband and wife join in the execution of an obligation, they are joint debtors, and subject to all the legal incidents of joint indebtedness. There is no presumption that either is a surety. This is a matter of defense and like other joint debtors, either may show, as against any party to be affected, in law, by such proof, that he or she is in fact a surety for the other. When this is done by the wife, the act of June 8, 1893, makes her obligation void.</p> <p>3. A proceeding to open a judgment is an appeal to the equity powers of the court; a judge, exercising the functions of a chancellor, is vested with the discretion to pass upon the weight of the evidence and credibility of the witnesses, and to dispose of the questions presented upon equitable principles. The action of the court below will only be reversed in such cases where the abuse of judicial discretion is apparent.</p> <p>4. An application to open a judgment entered against a married woman on a judgment note signed jointly by herself and husband is properly refused, where the evidence tends to show that although the husband received the proceeds of the note in money, yet the loan was made to the wife as principal on the securit