160 P. 132 | Or. | 1916
delivered the opinion of the court.
“All laws which impose or recognize civil disabilities upon a wife which are not imposed or recognized as existing as to the husband are hereby repealed; provided, that this act shall not confer the right to vote or hold office upon the wife, except as is otherwise provided by law; and for any unjust usurpation of her property or natural rights she shall have the same right to appeal in her own name alone to the courts of law or equity for redress that the husband has. ’ ’
This section does not confer upon the wife any new right of action. It only allows her admission to the courts as a suitor independent of her husband for the purpose of redressing the infringement of rights which she already had.
*523 “Natural rights are those which grow out of the nature of man and depend upon personality as distinguished from such as are created by law and depend upon civilized society, or they are those which are plainly assured by natural law.”
These words of the statute refer to those privileges which a feme sole possesses in common with any other individual, and the only effect of the enactment is to allow a married woman to litigate in her own name independent of her husband when these rights have been violated. It cannot be said that the marriage relation gives rise to natural rights in the sense designated by the common-law writers, for that relation grows out of the customs of society, and is more or less conventional.
“This right is invaded whenever a third person through machination, enticement, seduction or other wrongful, intentional, and malicious interference with the marriage relation deprives the husband or wife of the consortium of the other.”
There the attack upon the marriage relation is direct, with purpose and malice. The harm to the wife is immediate and not merely consequential or secondary, and the law visits punitive damages in her favor upon the wrongdoer. A negligent injury to the husband, however, affects the wife or widow only indi
It is unnecessary to decide whether the husband could bring such an action as this or not where his wife was injured or slain. It is sufficient to say that there is no statute so equipping the wife or widow.
The judgment is affirmed. Affirmed.