Rubenstein v. Lopsevich
| Decision Date | 10 April 1950 |
| Docket Number | No. A--107,A--107 |
| Citation | 4 N.J. 282,72 A.2d 518 |
| Parties | RUBENSTEIN et al. v. LOPSEVICH et al. |
| Court | New Jersey Supreme Court |
Joseph J. DeLuccia, Paterson, argued the cause for the appellant.
Peter Cohn, Paterson, argued the cause for the respondent.
The opinion of the court was delivered by
This appeal is from a judgment of the Passaic County Court entered in favor of the plaintiff on the defendant's counterclaim. While the appeal was to the Superior Court, Appellate Division, it was certified here on our own motion.
The dispositive question in the case and the only one raised on this appeal is--where a woman relying upon a promise of marriage performs the duties of a housekeeper for the promisor at his request and thereafter the promisor fails to abide by his promise, may the woman recover Quasi ex contractu for the reasonable value of her services?
Plaintiff Wolf, who lived in Paterson, in May, 1947, proposed to defendant Lopsevich, who lived in Brooklyn, New York, that if she would move to his house and help him fix it up he would marry her as soon as it was in a liveable condition. It was to be a merging of the households until marriage. Relying on this promise defendant quit her job and in June, 1947, moved to plaintiff's home and brought with her her grown daughter. She also brought her furniture with her. She proceeded to help fix up the home, performed the household chores, contributed money for food and bought a stove. In October there was a falling out between the parties, plaintiff told defendant he was not going to marry her and to move out. This she did not do, allegedly because she could not locate rooms elsewhere, and things continued on much the same basis as before, defendant performing the duties of housekeeper and plaintiff providing the house and $20 a week for food. This lasted until March, 1948 when plaintiff again ordered defendant to leave and stopped giving her the $20 weekly for household expenses. The following month defendant procured a job in a factory and ceased to act as housekeeper, though she and her daughter continued to live at plaintiff's home until December, 1948, when they found rooms elsewhere and moved out.
In the meantime, in October, 1948, the plaintiff Wolf and his landlady Pauline Rubenstein, the other plaintiff herein, had filed a complaint in ejectment against the defendant Lopsevich and her daughter Edna Yumplot. In this action the defendant Lopsevich, the appellant herein, counterclaimed against the plaintiff Wolf, the respondent herein, for the reasonable value of her services as a housekeeper and for money spent for food and equipment. As the previous dates indicate, at the time of the trial on May 16, 1949, the action in ejectment was no longer necessary, the defendants having moved and it was abandoned. The plaintiff Wolf did not appear, either in person or by counsel. The case proceeded and the court after hearing the defendant's testimony with respect to the counterclaim, ordered judgment entered for the plaintiff.
The defendant seeks to escape the operation of R.S. 2:39A--1, N.J.S.A., the 'Heart Balm' act which abolished suits for breach of promise to marry by suing on the theory of Quasi contract, rather than for breach of promise to marry. While it is clear that an action prosecuted under the latter theory would be barred by the statute there can be no objection to a suit based in Quasi contract, provided the elements necessary for recovery thereunder can be established without relying upon the promise to marry for support.
Appellant relies on Glazer v. Klughaupt, 116 N.J.L. 507, 510, 185 A. 8 (E. & A. 1936) wherein a stenographer was allowed to recover the salary which her employer had retained on the promise that he would marry her, which promise was subsequently breached. The court there held that 'The right of action which appellant seeks to enforce is one arising from the contract of hire, and is not, in its essence, a cause of action for damages based upon the breach of the claimed marriage contract.' In that case there was an express contract of hire while in the instant case there was not. The...
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Magierowski v. Buckley, A--63
...Our present Supreme Court has inferentially upheld the statute in Blackman v. Iles, 4 N.J. 82, 71 A.2d 633 (1950); Rubenstein v. Lopsevich, 4 N.J. 282, 72 A.2d 518 (1950), and Grobart v. Grobart, 5 N.J. 161, 74 A.2d 294 Although no one who has written on the subject has ever suggested that ......
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Morris v. MacNab
...v. Segal, 6 N.J.Super. 472, 69 A.2d 587 (Law Div.1949). Cf. Blackman v. Iles, 4 N.J. 82, 71 A.2d 633 (1950); Rubenstein v. Lopsevich, 4 N.J. 282, 72 A.2d 518 (1950); Magierowski v. Buckley, 39 N.J.Super. 534, 121 A.2d 749 Beginning with Indiana in 1935, many states enacted statutes designed......
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Kozlowski v. Kozlowski
...of contract or Quasi -contract, neither a promise to marry nor meretricious services may supply the consideration. Rubenstein v. Lopsevich, 4 N.J. 282, 72 A.2d 518 (1950); Glazer v. Klughaupt, supra. The determination as to what constitutes the consideration must be based upon the facts and......
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Appelget v. Van Hise
...may reasonably be inferred from the circumstances and conduct of the parties that no payment was to be made,' Rubenstein v. Lopsevich, 4 N.J. 282, 285, 72 A.2d 518, 520 (1950). I am perfectly clear that there was no intention or understanding between Appelget and Van Hise that the latter's ......