Foot v. Card
Decision Date | 13 September 1889 |
Citation | 58 Conn. 1,18 A. 1027 |
Parties | FOOT v. CARD. |
Court | Connecticut Supreme Court |
Case reserved from superior court, New Haven county.
Action by Laura L. Foot against Maria D. Card, for alienation of the affection of plaintiff's husband and loss of his society.
C. H. Fowler, for plaintiff. C. S. Hamilton, for defendant.
The plaintiff alleges that in the year 1872 she was living happily with, and in the enjoyment of the conjugal affection and society of, her husband, Eons Foot; that in that year the defendant, by her arts, blandishments, and persuasion, induced the said Eons Foot to begin, and from thence hitherto to continue, an adulterous intercourse with her; and that she thereby alienated from the plaintiff his conjugal affection, induced him to deny to her his conjugal society, and persuaded him to abandon her. She asks damages for these injuries. The defendant pleads in abatement that the plaintiff and her husband are still living together, and that he should have been made co-plaintiff. The plaintiff, demurring to this plea, admits, for the purpose of the question before us, that she is still living with her husband. For further defense, the defendant demurs to the complaint as follows: For the sole purpose of testing the sufficiency of the pleadings the defendant admits by her demurrer that from 1872 to this present time she has alienated from the plaintiff the conjugal affection of her husband, induced him to withhold from her his conjugal society, and herself has since lived in continual adultery with him. She denies, however, that the law has any form or mode of redress for this wrong. The case is reserved for the advice of this court as to the judgment to be rendered.
So far forth as the husband is concerned, from time immemorial the law has regarded his right to the conjugal affection and society of his wife as a valuable property, and has compelled the man who has injured it to make compensation. Whatever inequalities of right as to property may result from the marriage contract, husband and wife are equal in rights in one respect, namely, each owes to the other the fullest possible measure of conjugal affection and society, the husband to the wife all that the wife owes to him. Upon principle, this right in the wife is equally valuable to hr, as property, as is that of the husband to him. Her right being the same as his in kind, degree, and value, there would seem to be no valid reason why the law should deny to her the redress which it affords to him. But, from...
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