Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

101 Mass. 78

Eames v. Sweetser

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court

Decided January 15, 1869

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1869-01-15

Contract to recover the price of goods sold and delivered by the plaintiffs to the wife of the defendant for her own clothing. A savings bank was summoned as trustee. The case was tried in the superior court before Lord, J., who made the following report: “ It was agreed that the defendant and his wife were married on October 18,1865, and had since resided in Lowell as husband and wife up to the day of the sale of the goods sued for. The sale and delivery were admitted.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1869-01-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 11 later decisions — most recently July 1966

11 state decisions

3018691870188018901900191019201930194019501960decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Hoar, J.

¶1There was no evidence at the trial, so far as the report shows, that the wife, at the time she purchased the goods for which the plaintiffs seek to charge her husband, had eloped, or been guilty of any misconduct which affected her rights. She was about to visit her sister, and there is nothing to show that this was improper for her to do. When she returned, her husband refused to receive her; but for what reason does not appear.

¶2We have then the well settled and elementary rule of law, that, if a husband refuses or neglects to supply his wife with what is necessary for decency and comfort in his condition in life, he gives her credit to procure it for herself on his account and at his charge. The report states that the plaintiffs had no knowledge of the circumstances of the husband, or the necessi*81ties of the wife. That is immaterial. The burden of proof is upon them to show facts which create the defendant’s liability. If they sold goods upon his credit without his express authority, they took the risk of being able to prove an authority by implication of law. If they sold the wife more or other goods than her necessities required, they cannot recover of the husband for those. But their selling some goods to her which the husband did not, by his acts or omissions, authorize them to sell to her, will not prevent their recovering for those which were lawfully sold on his credit.

¶3As there was evidence that the wife was in need of clothing which her husband refused to furnish, and that clothing was supplied to her upon the husband’s credit, the case should be submitted to a jury to determine how much of it was necessary and suitable for her condition in life. New trial granted.

/101/mass/78 · .json · Public domain