Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

158 Fla. 418

28 So.2d 858

Jette v. Harbison

Supreme Court of Florida

Decided January 21, 1947

Supreme Court of Florida · decided 1947-01-21

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“"All property, real and personal, of a wife owned by her before marriage, or lawfully acquired afterward by gift, devise, bequest, descent, or purchase, shall be her separate property, and the same shall not be liable for the debts of her husband without her consent given by some instrument in writing executed according to the law respecting conveyances by married women."”

quoted by 3 later decisions, including Kovens v. Bluestone, 145 So. 2d 473 - Kovens v. Bluestone

““It is contended that to all intents and purposes, the note in question made the wife and her property liable for the debt in question. “We do not think there is any merit to this contention. Section 1, Article XI of the Constitution sets out in terms the requirement necessary to bind the property of a married woman to pay her husband’s debt. It cannot be done by a plain promissory note but must be done by an instrument in writing, executed according to the law respecting conveyances of married Women.””

quoted by 1 later decision, including American National Bank of Jacksonville v. Brantley

Relies on Matthews v. McCain

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1947-01-21

How this case has been cited

Cited by 31 later decisions — most recently April 1972 · most notably FIRST NATL. BANK OF MELBOURNE v. Berg (1963), 187 So. 2d 690 - Marinelli v. Weaver (1966)

31 state decisions

2701947195019601970decided

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 →

TERRELL, J.:

¶1 This is a certificate under Rule 38 of the Rules of this Court. The question certified is whether or not a judgment secured by the payee on a promissory note executed jointly by the husband and wife may be satisfied by an execution against the wife’s separate property. It is admitted that the note was given for the husband’s debt and that it was not sealed or witnessed.

¶2 The note was executed by the husband and wife in the usual form and upon default in payment the payee sued them jointly in a law action. The wife demurred to the declaration raising the bar of Section 1, Article XI of the Constitution, the pertinent part of which is that the separate propérty of the wife “shall not be liable for the debts of the husband without her consent given by some instrument. in writing executed according to the law respective conveyances of married women.”

¶3 Petitioner avers that the question presented is ruled by Chapter 21932, Acts of 1943, Section 708.08, Florida Statutes of 1941, the pertinent part of which' says in substance that every married woman may take charge of and contract as she sees fit with reference to her separate property. It is .contended that to all intents and purposes, the note in question made the wife and her property liable for the debt in question.

¶4 We do not think there is any merit to this contention.' Section .1, Article XI of the Constitution sets out in terms the requirement necessary to bind the property ’of - á marriéd: woman to pay her husband’s debt. It cannot be done by plain promissory note but müst be done by án iñstrument in writing, executed according to the law respecting conveyances of married women. - 'No Statute can repeal or modify this requirement. Matthews v. McCain, 125 Fla. 840, 170 So. 323. When read in full the Statute shows- on its face a purpose to re-enact the constitutional requirement though it authorizes a *420 married woman to make other Contracts relating to the sale or disposition of her separate property without the jointure of her husband.

¶5 The certificate is granted and the question certified in answer in the negative.

THOMAS, C. J., CHAPMAN, J., and FABISINSKI, Associate Justice, concur.
/158/fla/418 · .json · Public domain