84 Pa. 211 | Pa. | 1877
delivered the opinion of the court,
The mortgage in this case having been executed by the plaintiffs in error and duly acknowledged in the form prescribed by the Act of Assembly, it cannot be questioned that it is, in form, a valid pledge of the separate property of the wife; but it is contended that under the admitted facts the mortgagee is not entitled to recover the full amount of the mortgage debt. The question then is, whether the defendant in error is entitled to recover the whole or only a portion of the debt.
The supplemental affidavit of claim and recitals in the mortgage show that it was not intended as security for the debt of the husband for money loaned to him; on the contrary, it is distinctly averred that it was given to secure a loan to the wife for the improvement of her separate estate, and that it was so applied. It appears that she undertook, as a member of the association, to borrow, on her stock, the amount authorized by the charter; and, according to the affidavit of defence, the net amount received was $1300. The.bond secured by the mortgage is conditioned for the payment of $1800 with, interest monthly until each share of stock shall be worth $200, at which time the principal will be due and payable; with the proviso, that if she suffers the monthly payments of interest on the loan, or the monthly dues on the stock, or the fines, imposed in accordance with the constitution and by-laws of the association, to be and remain unpaid for the space of six months, then and in either event the principal shall become due and payable immediately. By assuming to become a member of the association she undertook to pay the monthly dues on her stock and subject herself to the payment of fines; and when she procured the loan she further undertook to pay, or, what is the same thing, allow the association to retain and deduct, from the nominal loan, the bonus of $500, and tó pay interest on the whole. In addition to this she assigned her stock as collateral security for the monthly dues. To sum up the result of the transaction in its financial aspect, she became connected with the association in October 1874; received from it $1300; paid in on account of fines, dues and interest, $266.90 ; and when suit was brought in April 1876, after her stock had been forfeited to the association, she was still indebted, according to the affidavit of claim, in the sum of $2010.11.
From the facts thus briefly stated, the connection of Mrs. Wol
These cases, and many others that might be cited, clearly show, as remarked by the chief justice in Berger v. Clark, supra, that the endeavor of this court has been to so construe the act as to advance its true purpose, and not to make the wife’s-condition less favorable by an interpretation that endangers her real interests. “ Hence, in interpreting the special clauses relating to the debts for which she may be held liable, the cases show that they have been so construed as to limit them strictly to the purpose of protection, and not loosely so as to expand her contract capacity and liability.” The whole course of decisions on the subject shows that this rule of construction has been rigidly adhered to, and it would be a wide departure from it, indeed, to hold that a married woman may assume liabilities such as were undertaken in this case. Mrs. Wolbach’s contract engagements with the association, to which we have already referred, are entirely outside-of-the principles on which any of the exceptional cases rest. To hold otherwise would be to greatly expand the contract capacity and liability of the wife, and instead of being a protection to her interests would prove to be a snare. The present case is an illustration of the disastrous consequences to which it would lead. In less than three years after she became a member, we find the association seeking to 'enforce against her separate estate a claim for over $2000, the net consideration for which was but little over half that sum. We might with equal propriety hold that she could unite with others in entering into a contract to build a railroad, or any other adventure or speculation, and pledge her separate property for the payment of her portion of the outlays and losses.
Erom what has been said we are justified in concluding that Mrs. Wolbach was incapable of incurring the liabilities she undertook to assume by becoming a member of the association; but it does not follow that she is wholly exempt from all responsibility under the mortgage. Having received, for the purpose of improving her separate estate, the sum of $1300, which was applied to that object, her separate property is liable, on the principles above stated, for this amount and interest thereon, less the payments made by her.
It may be claimed that, inasmuch as the premiums, fines and interest on premiums are by the Act of 1859 not deemed usurious,
The judgment is therefore reversed and procedendo awarded.