52 Ark. 234 | Ark. | 1889
Appellees sued appellant, Jennie C. Hickey, on three several promissory notes executed by her on the 14th of February, 1881, each for the sum of $266.41, aggregating $799.23, and bearing interest from the date of their •execution. They allege that she was a married woman at the time when the debt evidenced by the notes was contracted, but that she had a separate estate, and was carrying on a trade and business on her sole and separate account, and that the debt ■sued for was for moneys, goods and supplies advanced and sold to her for the maintaining and carrying on her separate business of farming and planting, and were used by her in that way. She denied contracting the debt; pleaded that she was a married woman when it was contracted and the notes were executed; and denied that she was carrying on a trade and business on her sole and separate account. The issues were tried by a jury, and a verdict was returned in favor of appellees, and her motion for a new trial having been overruled, she ■appealed.
There was evidence adduced in the trial tending to prove that appellees sold and advanced moneys, goods and supplies, to be used and consumed in improving and cultivating a certain farm, and raising crops thereon; that believing that the husband of the appellant was the owner of the farm, and cultivated the same on his own account, they charged the mone3/s, goods and supplies to him; that afterwards they discovered' that the farm was owned, claimed and cultivated by appellant; that she was engaged in the cultivation and raising crops thereon on her sole and separate account; that in the borrowing of the money and the purchasing the goods and supplies he was acting as her agent; and that when they discovered that fact they requested her to settle the account as her own indebtedness, and she did so by executing the notes sued on. If this evidence be true were appellees entitled to recover judgment against her on the notes ?
Walker v. Jessup, 43 Ark., 163, cited by appellant in her brief, has no application to this case. In that case, the defendant, who was a married woman, purchased lands at an administrator's sale upon a credit, and executed her bond for-the purchase money. The object of the suit was to recover a personal judgment against her on the bond, and a decree of foreclosure and sale. This court held that the plaintiff was. not entitled to a personal judgment against her. The question involved in this case was not considered or discussed in that. case.
The effect of the statute authorizing a married woman to “ carry on any trade or business” on her sole or separate account, is to invest her with all the rights, powers and privileges of a femme sole in respect to her separate business and the property invested therein, and subject her to the liabilities she would be subject to in respect thereto if she were unmarried. The right and capacity to purchase property in her own name, to be used about her separate business, is a necessary incident to the power conferred upon her to conduct the business on her separate account. It is unreasonable to suppose that the intention of the statute, when it gave her this power, was to 'leave her under her common law disability to bind herself by contract. The grant of the power, without words of limitation, necessarily carries with it the right to conduct business in the way and by the means usually employed in carrying on the same. Conceding her this power, her right to purchase on a credit cannot be doubted. Having this right, it necessarily follows that she can be compelled, through the courts, to abide by and perform such contracts to the same extent that she could be if she were unmarried. To save any question upon this point, the statute expressly authorizes her to be sued alone in respect to her separate busines, and provides that judgments recovered against her may be enforced against her sole and separate estate and property to the same extent .and in the same manner as if she were afemme sole. Mansf. Dig., sections 4625, 4626, 4630; Nispel v. Laparle, 54 Ill., 306, 308; Young v. Gori, 13 Abb. Pr., 13 in foot note; Freeking v. Rolland, 53 N. Y., 422; Camden v. Mullen, 29 Cal., 564; Stewart on Husband and Wife, sec. 453.
Judgment affirmed.