South v. Denniston
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
WRIT of error to the court of common pleas of Mleghany county. This was an action on the case by Sarah South, the plaintiff in error, against Joseph Denniston, for the seduction of her daughter, Amanda South. The action was instituted by the mother, who was a widow, during the minority of the daughter.
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WRIT of error to the court of common pleas of Mleghany county. This was an action on the case by Sarah South, the plaintiff in error, against Joseph Denniston, for the seduction of her daughter, Amanda South. The action was instituted by the mother, who was a widow, during the minority of the daughter. The latter went to live with the defendant’s father at the age of eleven, and continued there until her seventeenth or eighteenth year, when the seduction took place, and she was .begotten with child by the defendant. She continued to live at the house until the month of June following, when…
1Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the Court was delivered by
Gibson, C. J.
An action on the case for the seduction of a daughter is founded exclusively on the relation of master and servant, not parent and child ; and the gist of it is consequential loss of service. By reason of a father’s duty to educate and maintain his infant children, he stands in the place of a master to them while he retains ' the right of personal control, even as to such of them as are not under his immediate dominion. But if this right be divested or expired, the relation can be renewed but by actual service, which, to found an action…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Logan v. MurraySupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1820
- Hornketh v. BarrSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1822
3Cited by9 opinions
- Bartley v. . RichtmyerNew York Court of Appeals · 1850
- Gray v. DurlandNew York Supreme Court · 1867
- Nordmark v. Indian Queen Hotel Co.Superior Court of Pennsylvania · 1931
- Roberts v. ConnellySupreme Court of Alabama · 1848
- Fernsler v. MoyerSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1842
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