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51 Ind. 61

Yopst v. Yopst

Indiana Supreme Court

Decided November 15, 1875

Indiana Supreme Court · decided 1875-11-15

<p>Husband and Wife. — Property Acquired by Wife’s Earnings. — Property acquired by the earnings of a wife during coverture is governed in this State by the common law rule, and therefore belongs to the husband.</p>

Relies on Baxter v. Prickett's Administrator · Jenkins v. Flinn

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1875-11-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently December 1929

4 state decisions

20187518801890190019101920decided

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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Downey, J.

¶1This was a controversy between husband and wife as to the ownership and right to possession of certain articles of personal property, consisting of furniture, millinery goods, etc.

¶2*62The evidence, the sufficiency of which is in question, shows that the property was not held by the wife at the time of her marriage, or acquired by her afterwards by descent, devise or gift; but was the proceeds of her labor, assisted to some extent by her husband.

¶3The court below, on this evidence, adjudged the property to be hers, and gave judgment in her favor. We think this-was an error.

¶4Personal property held by the wife at the time of her marriage, or acquired during coverture by descent, devise or gift, is her own property. Acts 1853, p. 57; 1 G. & H. 295, note 2. But property acquired by the earnings of the wife during coverture is governed by the common law rule and belongs to the husband. Baxter v. Prickett’s Adm’r, 27 Ind. 490; Jenkins v. Flinn, 37 Ind. 349.

¶5The judgment is reversed, with costs, and the cause-remanded, with instructions to gra«nt a new trial.

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