Traverse City State Bank v. Conaway, Docket No. 10542
| Decision Date | 19 January 1972 |
| Docket Number | No. 3,Docket No. 10542,3 |
| Citation | 37 Mich.App. 647,195 N.W.2d 288 |
| Parties | TRAVERSE CITY STATE BANK, a Michigan banking corporation, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. John E. CONAWAY and Marion R. Conaway, husband and wife, Defendants-Appellees |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Michigan — District of US |
Dennis L. Huntley, Murchie, Calcutt & Brown, Traverse City, for plaintiff-appellant.
Conaways not represented.
Before R. B. BURNS, P.J., and FITZGERALD and V. J. BRENNAN, JJ.
The defendants, husband and wife, signed a note as makers in return for a $9,843.75 loan from plaintiff bank. All of the money was to be used in a business operated exclusively by the husband, John Conaway. The wife, Marion Conaway, received no separate consideration and signed as an accommodation to her husband. Subsequent to the execution of the note, but prior to institution of suit by plaintiff, John Conaway was adjudged bankrupt and was individually discharged.
Both plaintiff and defendants submitted the case to the trial judge on stipulated facts and moved for summary judgment. Although the plaintiff asked for a joint judgment against the defendants restricting execution to entireties and joint property, the trial judge in his opinion stated:
'The only issue of law then before the Court is, 'Is the defendant wife liable for the repayment of the above note when she received no separate consideration, nor did she intend to mortgage or pledge her separate estate to secure the repayment thereof?"
A judgment was entered dismissing the case against John E. Conaway and Marion R. Conaway but neither the opinion nor the judgment reach the critical issue of joint liability.
Property owned by Marion and John Conaway as tenants by the entireties or joint tenants remains subject to a joint judgment against them regardless of Mr. Conaway's discharge in bankruptcy. Kolakowski v. Cyman, 285 Mich. 585, 281 N.W. 332 (1938).
By virtue of 1917 P.A. No. 158; M.C.L.A. § 557.51 et seq.; M.S.A. § 26.181 et seq., a married woman who signs a written instrument as an accommodation to her husband, subjects to execution property held by the entireties or jointly. Ann Arbor Construction Co. v. Glime, 369 Mich. 669, 120 N.W.2d 747 (1963); Benjamin v Bondy, 322 Mich. 35, 33 N.W.2d 651 (1948); Rossman v. Hutchinson, 289 Mich. 577, 286 N.W. 835 (1939).
The trial judge erred. A judgment should have been entered for the plaintiff against the...
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