Porter v. Briggs
Supreme Court of Iowa
Appeal from Mitchell District Court. Plaintiees, who are attorneys at law, bring this action to recover against defendant for professional services rendered by them in defending his wife in an action brought by him for divorce on the ground of adultery.
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Appeal from Mitchell District Court. Plaintiees, who are attorneys at law, bring this action to recover against defendant for professional services rendered by them in defending his wife in an action brought by him for divorce on the ground of adultery. The petition alleges that the services rendered were necessary to establish the wife’s innocence of the crime of adultery, with which she was charged by her husband,- and that she has no estate of her own from which the debt may be collected. The petition does not allege any special undertaking by the defendant to pay for the services rendered…
1Opinion of the CourtBeck, J.
i ATToiarEr • bandnandUS" •wife. — The question presented for our decision in the case before us is this: Is the husband liable for services rendered by an attorney-at-law in establishing the innocence of the wife upon a charge of adultery, made by the husband himself in an action for' divorce? In our opinion he is liable for such services upon an implied promise, which the law raises, to pay therefor as necessaries for the wife.
The liability of the husband, upon an implied undertaking to pay for necessaries supplied to the wife, is everywhere recognized. But what things or what services are…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- McCullough v. RobinsonIndiana Supreme Court · 1851
3Cited by27 opinions
- Thorn v. KelleySupreme Court of Iowa · 1965
- Heacock v. HeacockSupreme Court of Iowa · 1899
- Clyde v. PeavySupreme Court of Iowa · 1888
- Musick v. DodsonSupreme Court of Missouri · 1882
- Sherwin v. MabenSupreme Court of Iowa · 1889
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