111 Mich. 213 | Mich. | 1896
Claimant presented her claim to the commissioners on the estate of Henry Slack, deceased. She claimed $252.50, and was allowed $125. From this she appealed to the circuit court, where, upon a trial before a jury, the court directed verdict in favor of
On appeal here, counsel for the estate contends that the court was not in error, for the reasons, among others, that the husband is entitled to have his wife’s services and earnings, the same as at common law, and to make
In Stackable v. Stackable’s Estate, 65 Mich. 518, the court, referring to this statute, say:
“It is clear that, without some assignment, this claim for board would belong to the husband, and not to the wife. He was the head of the household* and furnished the family supplies. There had to be some agreement on his part' with his wife that she should receive the pay for the board. The statute is aimed at an assignment before the death of the party against whom the claim exists, as well as to one after his death. ”
In the present case, the wife was permitted by her husband to keep boarders, furnished the provisions herself, and with which it is apparent the husband had nothing to do. In this respect it differed from the Stack-able Case, and the husband was a competent witness to show that this was the wife’s business, and not his own. It is not an action upon an account brought by the wife which has been assigned to her. It is a claim with which the husband had nothing to do, if his testimony given in the case is to be believed. The husband did not stand towards the wife as the assignor of the claim, and therefore was not prohibited by the statute from testifying to any ai’rangement which the wife made with the deceased for his board and care. Pz’ior to the time of this arrangement between claimant and deceased, she had kept boarders. This seems to have been her business, while the business of the husband was that of a traveling salesman. It has been decided many times in this court that a married woznan, with the consent of her husband, may carzy on business on her own account, and may be protected in the results thereof, against him and against his creditors, to the same extent as if she were unmarried. Tillman v. Shackleton, 15 Mich. 447 (93 Am. Dec. 198); West v. Laraway, 28 Mich. 464. We think the court was in error izz holding that the husband, under the circumstances, was not a competent witness, and that the jury should have been instructed that, if they found the contract as claimed by the claimant, they should find a verdict in favor of the claimant, as we think there was 'sufficient evidezzce to warz’ant the submission of that question to the jury.
The judgment must be reversed, and a new trial ordered.