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152 Wis. 463

Harter v. Holman

Wisconsin Supreme Court

Decided February 18, 1913

Wisconsin Supreme Court · decided 1913-02-18

<p> Married women: Separate estate: Delivery to husband: Gift or trust? Presumptions. </p> <p>Where a married woman delivers to her husband money belonging to her separate estate, with no agreement of any kind as to repayment thereof, there is no presumption that it was intended as a gift, and in the absence of any direct evidence of such intention he must be deemed to hold it in trust for her benefit.</p>

Relies on Stickney v. Stickney · Boyd v. . De La Montagnie · Adoue v. Spencer

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Affirmed · Decided 1913-02-18

How this case has been cited

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently March 1934

3 state decisions

10191319201930decided

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.

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WiNSLOw, C. J.

¶1We find but one question in this case serious enough to require treatment, and that question may be stated as follows: When a married woman delivers to her husband money belonging to her separate estate with no agree*464ment of any kind as to the repayment thereof, is there a legal presumption that it was intended as a gift? By the great weight of authority in the states where, as in Wisconsin, married women have been given full right to receive, hold, and deal with their separate estate as if single, this question is answered in the negative. Bergey’s Appeal, 60 Pa. St. 408; Boyd v. De La Montagnie, 73 N. Y. 498; Adoue v. Spencer, 62 N. J. Eq. 782, 49 Atl. 10. See, also, the authorities cited in the note to the last named case as reported in 56 L. R. A. 817, on page 820.

¶2In the case of Stickney v. Stickney, 131 U. S. 227, 9 Sup. Ct. 677, the rule is well stated by the supreme court of the United States as follows:

“We think that whenever a husband acquires possession of the separate property of his wife, whether with or without her consent, he must be deemed to hold it in trust for her benefit, in the absence of any direct evidence that she intended to make a gift of it to him.”

¶3The trial court followed this rule, and hence the judgment must be affirmed.

¶4By the Court. — Judgment affirmed.

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