Blackley v. Laba

• Decision Date: 18 March 1884
• Citation: 63 Iowa 22,18 N.W. 658
• Parties: BLACKLEY v. LABA.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

63 Iowa 22

18 N.W. 658

BLACKLEY

v.LABA.^*

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Filed March 18, 1884.

Appeal from Wayne circuit court.

This action was commenced before the justice of the peace to recover $32, the value of services of plaintiff, who is a physician, in rendering “medical treatment for a girl.” Judgment was rendered for defendant by the justice of the peace, but on appeal to the circuit court there was a judgment for plaintiff. Defendant appeals to this court.

ADAMS, J., dissenting.

G. Taylor Wright, for appellant.

E. L. Hart, for appellee.

BECK, J.

1. The amount in controversy in the cause being less than $100, it was certified by the judge of the circuit court for determination upon the following question of law: “Is a father legally liable to a physician for the latter's services in professionally treating the adult but unmarried daughter of said father, during her last illness, where the physician was called by the daughter, she at the time living with her father as a member of his family, that being her home; the treatment being necessary and proper, and rendered with the knowledge of the father, and without any objection on the part of the latter to the physician?”

2. At common law a father is not liable for necessaries furnished an adult child; and it may be admitted for the purposes of the case that medical treatment is included in the term “necessaries.” This rule prevails though the child be at the home of the father where the necessaries are furnished. Crane v. Baudouine, 55 N. Y. 256;Boyd v. Sappington, 4 Watts, 247;Mills v. Wyman, 3 Pick. 207;Norris v. Dodge's Adm'r, 23 Ind. 190;Wood v. Ex'rs of Gill, Coxe (N. J.) 449. The fact that the adult child is a member of the family of the father does not render him liable for necessaries furnished upon request of the child. The father, as the head of the family, is not liable for the necessaries furnished its members, other than the wife and minor children. Servants, lodgers, and boarders are members of the family, as well as all others, who are subject to the authority of its head. See Webst. Dict. But for necessaries furnished none of these, is the father liable. An adult son or daughter, whose home is with the father, is of this class of persons.

3. It is argued that as an adult son or daughter who lives with the father and renders to him personal service cannot recover compensation for such services from the father, he ought to be liable for necessaries furnished to such an one. This point we are not permitted to decide, for the reason that it is not presented by the question certified to us. It is not shown therein that the daughter in this case rendered any services. Our decision must be confined to the very question of law certified, and cannot be extended to facts not contemplated in it.

4. Counsel for plaintiff think that Code, § 1330, which provides that the father of a poor person who is unable to...