McFerren v. Goldsmith-Stern Co.

Citations

• 113 A. 107
• 137 Md. 573
• 18 A.L.R. 1125
• 1921 Md. LEXIS 34

Syllabus

<p>Husband’s Inability- — Necessaries Furnished Wife — Express Agency — Instructions—Evidence.</p> <p>The husband’s obligation, arising from the marriage relation, to supply his wife with necessities suitable to her station in life, is not affected by the fact that she may have means of her own from which she could procure them.</p> <p>The authority of the wife to pledge her husband’s credit for necessities appropriate to her station in life involves an agency arising er. necessitate, and is; not the conventional agency created by express language or implied from the conduct and course of dealing of the principal.</p> <p>If it appears that the husband has supplied his wife with necessities, or the means to procure them, there is no presumption of an agency of necessity, and whoever seeks to charge the husband for purchases on his credit by the wife must prove agency as in other cases in which her right to pledge his credit is questioned.</p> <p>Where the husband and wife are separated, and he provides for her maintenance and support by the payment of money or other valuable commodity at stated intervals, either as alimony under an order of some court of competent jurisdiction, or in accordance with an agreement between them, fixing such an amount as adequate and satisfactory, she is not authorized to pledge his credit under the presumed authority of an agency of necessity; and the person seeking to charge the husband under such circumstances assumes the burden of proving an agency in fact.</p> <p>In an action for the price of wearing apparel furnished to defendant’s wife, it was error to instruct the jury that if the apparel was purchased by the wife on defendant’s credit, and she had purchased from plaintiff similar garments on many occasions, and her husband had in each case paid for them, plaintiff was entitled to recover unless her husband had furnished her with necessary wearing apparel or with sufficient money to procure it, the prayer in effect resting- the r