Trust Company Bank v. Thornton

In 1927, the Supreme Court noted that “[w]hile the husband is still declared by statute to be the head of the family ... he, like the King of England, is largely a figurehead.” Curtis v. Ashworth, 165 Ga. 782, 787 (142 SE 111) (1927). That observation may suggest a concern over the lack of marital harmony. To whatever extent marital discord was attributable to that unequal legal status, the problem has been resolved by the egalitarian ruling of Orr v. Orr, 440 U. S. 268 (99 SC 1102, 59 LE2d 306) (1979). In one sense, that progressive development of the law demonstrates the law’s purpose of…