Whipple v. Giles
Supreme Court of New Hampshire
The plaintiff was employed by the defendant, as an attorney-at-law, to procure for her a divorce on the alleged ground of extreme cruelty, and it is for services so rendered that suit is now brought. After the testimony had been taken, the proceedings for divorce were abandoned by her, and she directed the plaintiff to proceed no further, and the defendant thereafter lived with her husband as his wife until his death some year or two after.
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The plaintiff was employed by the defendant, as an attorney-at-law, to procure for her a divorce on the alleged ground of extreme cruelty, and it is for services so rendered that suit is now brought. After the testimony had been taken, the proceedings for divorce were abandoned by her, and she directed the plaintiff to proceed no further, and the defendant thereafter lived with her husband as his wife until his death some year or two after. Since the death of the husband this suit was brought. If the plaintiff can maintain his action, he is to have judgment for the amount of his claim and…
1Opinion of the Court
Contracts of Married Women. It is settled that the common-law disability of a married woman to bind herself by contract is not removed by statute in this state, except so far as regards her contracts respecting property which she holds in her own right. That was so decided in Bailey v. Pearson, 29 N.H. 77, upon the statute of 1846, which was not materially different from Gen. Stats., ch. 164, sec. 13, and has been repeatedly reaffirmed since. This seems to me quite decisive of the present case. There is no just sense in which a contract by a married woman for the services of an attorney in…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Bailey v. PearsonSuperior Court of New Hampshire · 1854
3Cited by2 opinions
- Muzzey v. ReardonSupreme Court of New Hampshire · 1876
- Blake v. HallSupreme Court of New Hampshire · 1876