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206 A.2d 733

Mountjoy v. Mountjoy

District of Columbia Court of Appeals

Decided February 8, 1965

District of Columbia Court of Appeals · decided 1965-02-08

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““* * * [Ajppellant urges that the fundamental bases for the doctrine now no longer exist and that there is a definite trend toward adoption of the minority rule eliminating the bar to any tort action between husband and wife. Any change in this long-established doctrine in the District of Columbia should be accomplished by Congressional enactment.” Mountjoy v. Mountjoy, D.C. App., 206 A.2d 733 (1965).”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Mountjoy v. Mountjoy

Relies on Thompson v. Thompson · Jessie Thompson v. Charles N Thompson · Yellow Cab Co. of D. C., Inc. v. Dreslin

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1965-02-08

How this case has been cited

Cited by 12 later decisions — most recently April 2001

7 federal appellate · 1 district · 3 state decisions

8019651970198019902000decided

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 →

PER CURIAM.

¶1 Appellant wife sued her husband for damages for personal injuries allegedly sustained while she was a passenger in an automobile negligently operated by him in the District of Columbia. This appeal followed a summary judgment for the husband in the trial court on the ground of interspousal immunity from liability for tortious acts of one against the other.

¶2 The common law rule forbids a wife to sue her husband for any tort committed against her and has been held to be unaffected by the Married Women’s Act (D.C.Code 1961, § 30-208). Thompson v. Thompson, 218 U.S. 611, 31 S.Ct. 111, 54 L.Ed. 1180 (1910); Yellow Cab Co. of D.C. v. Dreslin, 86 U.S.App.D.C. 327, 181 F.2d 626, 19 A.L.R.2d 1001 (1950); Rommel v. West American Insurance Co., D.C.Mun.App., 158 A.2d 683 (1960). We hold that the trial court properly granted summary judgment under the existing law of the District of Columbia.

¶3 Despite the fact that a majority of the jurisdictions still upholds the doctrine of interspousal immunity and that there has been no change in its applicability in the District of Columbia, appellant urges that the fundamental bases for the doctrine now no longer exist and that there is a definite trend toward adoption of the minority rule eliminating the bar to any tort action between husband and wife. Any change in this long-established doctrine in the District of Columbia should be accomplished by Congressional enactment.

¶4 Affirmed.

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