Campbell v. Campbell

• Decision Date: 24 May 1960
• Docket Number: No. CC855,CC855
• Citation: 114 S.E.2d 406,145 W.Va. 245
• Parties: Lucile CAMPBELL v. Riley N. CAMPBELL et al.
• Court: West Virginia Supreme Court

Page 406

114 S.E.2d 406

145 W.Va. 245

Lucile CAMPBELL v. Riley N. CAMPBELL et al.

No. CC855.

Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

Submitted May 3, 1960.

Decided May 24, 1960.

Syllabus by the Court

1. Equity does not have jurisdiction of a case in which the plaintiff seeks to recover damages for personal injuries caused by the negligence of the defendant for the reason that if a recovery of such damages may be had the plaintiff has a full, complete and adequate remedy in an action at law.

2. In this State a wife can not recover damages from her husband for personal injuries caused by his negligence and can not maintain an action at law or a suit in equity against him for that purpose.

3. 'The joinder in a declaration of a cause of action sounding in contract with one sounding in tort is a misjoinder of causes of action, and makes the declaration demurrable.' Point 1, syllabus, O'Neal v. Pocahontas Transportation Company, 99 W.Va. 456 .

No appearance for plaintiff.

Fletcher W. Mann, Beckley, for defendants.

HAYMOND, Judge.

This is a suit in equity instituted in the Circuit Court of Wyoming County in March 1959, in which the plaintiff, Lucile Campbell, a married woman, seeks to recover damages from the defendants, Riley N. Campbell, her husband, and his insurer State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, for personal injuries caused bythe alleged negligence of her husband while she was riding as a guest in an automobile owned and operated by him on a public street in the City of Miami, Florida, on March 22, 1958.

The defendants filed their written demurrer to the bill of complaint and challenged its legal sufficiency and in substance assert as grounds of demurrer that it does not state a cause of action against the defendants, that its allegations show that equity does not have jurisdiction of this suit, that in this State a wife can not maintain an action against her husband for personal injuries caused by his negligence, and that the defendant insurance company is not a proper party to this suit because under its policy of insurance with the husband it incurs no obligation to pay the plaintiff unless liability of its insured has been determined which has not been done.

The circuit court overruled the demurrer and on its own motion certified the questions arising upon the demurrer to this Court. The questions certified are: (1) Whether a court of equity has jurisdiction of the claim set forth in the bill of complaint; (2) whether a wife may maintain a suit in equity against her husband and his insurer for personal injuries caused by his negligence while operating an automobile in which his wife was riding as a guest; and (3) whether the insurer is a proper party defendant to this suit.

As the sole relief sought by the plaintiff is a recovery of damages from her husband and his insurer for personal injuries caused by the alleged negligence of the husband it is clear that, if she is entitled to maintain any proceeding against them for that purpose, the plaintiff has a complete and adequate remedy for the recovery of such damages in an action at law. This Court has repeatedly and uniformly held in many cases that equity does not have jurisdiction of a case in which a plaintiff has a full, complete and adequate remedy at law, unless some peculiar feature of the case comes within the province of a court of equity. Pownall v. Cearfoss, 129 W.Va. 487, 40 S.E.2d 886; Kwass v. Kersey, 139 W.Va. 497, 81 S.E.2d 237, 47 A.L.R.2d 695; Slater v. Varney, 136 W.Va. 406, 68 S.E.2d 757, 70 S.E.2d 477; Lake O'Woods Club v. Wilhelm, 126 W.Va. 447, 28 S.E.2d 915; Irons v. Bias, 85 W.Va. 493, 102 S.E. 126; United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company v. Home Bank for Savings, 77 W.Va. 665, 88 S.E. 109; Maxwell v. Davis Trust Company, 69 W.Va. 276, 71 S.E. 270; Laidley v. Laidley, 25 W.Va. 525. Further citation of authority is unnecessary in support of this firmly established principle of law in this State; and no peculiar feature which would bring this case within the jurisdiction of a court of equity appears from the allegations of the bill of complaint. In consequence equity is without jurisdiction to entertain this suit.

At common law one spouse can not maintain an action at law against the other for damages for personal injuries; and the statutes of this State which remove certain common law disabilities of a married woman, and permit her to sue and to be sued, do not change the common law rule in this respect. Wright v. Davis, 132 W.Va. 722, 53 S.E.2d 335; Staats v. Co-Operative Transit Company, 125 W.Va. 473, 24 S.E.2d 916; Poling v. Poling, 116 W.Va. 187, 179 S.E. 604. No statute of this State authorizes or permits one spouse to sue the other spouse at law to recover damages for personal injury or other tort. In Poling v. Poling, 116 W.Va. 187, 179 S.E. 604, in which a husband instituted an action against his wife to recover damages for personal...