111 Pa. 215 | Pa. | 1886
delivered the opinion of the eourt, January 4th, 1886.
In the year 1880 Theresa Kaiser, wife of Julius Kaiser, received from her father’s estate in Ohio the sum of $450; with this money she purchased from Blasius Rauch, and furnished a saloon property at No. 18 Carson street, Pittsburgh; the goods were subsequently insured in her name, and the business was conducted for her benefit from the date of the purchase until the 6th of November, 1881. On the day last named, she claims to have purchased, through Emanuel Weiler, from J. J. Speck the furnishment, stock in trade, and leasehold of a saloon and boarding house, known as the Panhandle Hotel, at No. 10 Carson street, at and for the price of $900, which was paid — $200 in cash, and the residue in five promissory notes of $140 each, payable in two, four, six, eight, and ten months thereafter, made and signed by Julius Kaiser and indorsed by Emanuel Weiler. The whole transaction would appear to have been conducted by Weiler, who was a whole
There is no proof that at this time Julius Kaiser was the owner of any estate, or had any means, either in money or otherwise, nor that he was indebted in any sum whatever ; he neither owned or owed anything, nor was he about to embark in any new or hazardous business, from which an indebtedness might be anticipated. The damages for which Shuster’s judgment was afterwards obtained were not sustained, and no cause of action existed until in the year 1882. Theresa Kaiser, on the other hand, was or assumed to be the owner of the saloon property at No..18 Carson street, which she paid for with the money received from her father’s estate, and which she subsequently sold for some three hundred dollars, and had in hand $200, which she alleges were accumulated profits or earnings derived from its management. This $200, it is alleged, was paid as the hand money of the purchase, and the notes were discounted in bank, and were subsequently paid by her with money made in the business, which she regarded as her own.
There may have been at the trial some controversy as to the facts, and as to the bonafides of these several transactions, but all this has been settled by the verdict, and the question here, as stated in the argument of counsel, is as to the legal effect of the purchase of the Panhandle Hotel under the facts and circumstances mentioned.
It is certainly well settled, by the decisions of this court, that a feme covert cannot buy personal estate upon merely personal credit; if she does, her husband’s creditors may seize
In Goff v. Nuttall, 8 Wr., 78, a lot of ground was conveyed .
So in Thompson v. Thompson, 1 Norris, 378, it was held, the right of a husband to procure a conveyance of land to be made to his wife, and to settle the land upon her, is not affected by the fact that he borrowed a portion of the purchase money at the time of the execution of the deed, if at the time he had no other debts, and was not about to enter into any hazardous business, or to contract fresh obligations. And in Nippes’s Appeal, 25 P. F. S., 472, it was said, that in the absence of proof of any fraudulent intention, the fact that the land conveyed was all the property the husband had was immaterial. The same rules which govern the acquisition of personaltjr by married women, govern in the purchase of realty by them, and therefore the decisions of this court as to one is, iu general, equally applicable to the other.
It is a matter of little consequence here, that the license was in-the husband’s name; this was proper for the jury in their deliberations as to whether or not the business really belonged to the husband or to the wife, but if she was in fact the owner of the property in dispute, she could not by this circumstance lose her title : Troxell v. Stockberger, 15 Weekly Notes, 117. She could not, it seems, have the license in her name, and for that reason it was taken out in his, until after the decree was entered constituting the wife a feme sole trader. The testimony is clear that the liquors were purchased, and the business generally conducted by Rer, and under the findings of the jury the profits and earnings were hers.
Judgment affirmed.