Van Maren v. Johnson

Citations

• 15 Cal. 308

Syllabus

<p>'In an action by the wife for money, which, when recovered, will be her separate property, subject to the management and control of the husband, he is properly joined with her as plaintiff.</p> <p>In the exceptional cases mentioned in sec. 7 of the Practice Act, the statute is not obligatory on the wife to sue or defend alone; it confers only a privilege which in many cases it may be important for her to assert for the protection of her interests, and in the exercise of which the fullest liberty should be accorded her. When the action concerns her separate property, and is not between herself and husband, she may sue with or without him.</p> <p>Where suit is brought against a female, who subsequently marries, her husband must be made co-defendant. But this should be done, and an averment of the marriage be made, by a supplemental complaint, and not by an amendment to the original.</p> <p>If the husband be made a party at the trial, upon suggestion of the marriage, in open Court with the consent of all parties, by an order of Court, and the complaint is then and there amended by simply inserting the names of the husband and wife in place of the female defendant alone, and they then file an answer, it cannot be for the first time objected in the Supreme Court, that a supplemental complaint should have been filed.</p> <p>Ror is it any objection in such case that, after the amendment of the complaint, the suit was against defendants jointly, while the evidence failed to show any canse of action against the husband. The action being for services rendered the defendant, wife, previous to her marriage, the liability of the common property of the defendants, and the necessity of making the husband a party, arise from the subsequent marriage; and as the orders and proceedings of the Court, however informal and irregular, show the true facts of the case, the judgment will be a bar to any future action against the defendants for the same cause.</p> <p>Facts which occur subs