Wilson v. Barton
Decision Date | 22 May 1926 |
Citation | 283 S.W. 71 |
Parties | WILSON v. BARTON. |
Court | Tennessee Supreme Court |
Appeal from Circuit Court, Cheatham County; J. C. Hobbs, Judge.
Action by John Wilson, administrator of the estate of Daisy Page Barton, deceased, against W. I. Barton. Demurrer to the declaration was sustained, and plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.
John E. Garner, of Springfield, and A. W. Stockell, Jr., and J. H. Frazier, both of Nashville, for appellant.
P. H. Duke and Pardue & Marable, all of Ashland City, for appellee.
Upon the charge that the defendant unlawfully assaulted and killed his wife, Daisy Page Barton, her administrator sued to recover damages for her death, for the benefit of the next of kin. The trial judge sustained the defendant's demurrer to the declaration, holding that no right of action exists for the tort committed by one spouse against the other during coverture. The plaintiff appealed and insists that the effect of the Married Woman's Act was to change the common-law doctrine which denied the right of recovery in actions by one spouse to recover for tort committed during the marital unity.
In Lillienkamp v. Rippetoe, 133 Tenn. 57, 179 S. W. 628, L. R. A. 1916B, 881, Ann. Cas. 1917C, 901, the divorced wife sought a recovery against the husband for an unlawful assault committed during coverture, and in that case it was insisted that the Married Woman's Act of 1913 abrogated the common-law rule.
Chapter 26, Acts of 1913, and section 1, chapter 126, Acts of 1919, are identical. The added sections in the latter act are section 2, preserving tenancies by the entirety; section 3, extending the statute of limitations to married women; section 4, assuring a homestead to the wife whose husband owned no land.
In the Lillienkamp Case, after stating the common-law doctrine under which no right of action existed in behalf of either the husband or wife against the other for tort during coverture, the court construed the Act of 1913, saying:
Had Mrs. Barton survived the assault, she could not have maintained the action against her husband, because the right of action never existed.
At common law the right of action for personal injuries resulting in death died with the person injured (Holston v. Coal Co., 95 Tenn. 521, 32 S. W. 486; Railway v. Lilly, 90 Tenn. 563, 18 S. W. 243), and did not survive for the benefit of any one (Railroad v. Shewalter, 128 Tenn. 363, 161 S. W. 1136, L. R. A. 1916C, 964, Ann. Cas. 1915C, 605).
The authority of the administrator to maintain this action for the death of Mrs. Barton must be found in ...
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