Opinion
33371.
DECIDED MARCH 16, 1951.
Complaint; from Sandersville City Court — Judge Evans. October 24, 1950.
J. D. Godfrey, Casey Thigpen, for plaintiff in error.
T. A. Hutcheson, contra.
The petition set out a cause of action, and the court did not err in overruling the demurrer to the petition.
DECIDED MARCH 16, 1951.
Mrs. E. B. McCaskill sued Mrs. W. E. Garrard in the City Court of Sandersville on account, and her petition alleged in substance: 1. The defendant is a resident of said county. 2. The defendant is indebted to the petitioner in the sum of $208 principal upon an account, hereto attached as Exhibit "A" and made a part hereof. 3. The defendant employed the plaintiff, a nurse, registered according to the laws of Georgia, to nurse and wait upon her husband, W. E. Garrard, upon the dates shown and she was to receive $1 per hour for such services. 4. Said account is true, due, just, demanded, and unpaid, although she did care for and nurse said W. E. Garrard, as aforesaid, a total of 238 hours while he was a patient in Rawlings Sanitarium.
The defendant demurred to the petition upon the following grounds: that the allegations snow no cause of action against the defendant, in that it is alleged that the defendant employed the plaintiff, a nurse, to nurse the defendant's husband; that, under the law of Georgia, the husband is the head of the family, and the wife is not responsible for his debts; that the manner and form in which it is attempted to make the wife liable is immaterial, as a wife can not under any condition assume the debts of her husband.
The case came on for hearing on demurrer, and, after argument, the judge entered a judgment overruling the demurrer. The defendant excepted to the ruling.
In this case the plaintiff in error contends that the trial court erred in overruling the demurrer to the petition, because the husband is the head of the family, is liable for his own debts and the debts contracted in the support of his family. The defendant in error contends that the wife became liable for the services furnished to her husband by virtue of an original undertaking on her part to pay for the services ordered. The allegations show that the defendant's husband was ill in a sanitarium, that she employed the defendant, a nurse, to nurse him, and that the defendant nursed her husband. The grounds of the demurrer are without merit. It is the law in Georgia that a married woman may, as an original undertaker, become liable for services furnished to her husband, even though she received no personal benefit therefrom. See Wimpee v. McHenry, 18 Ga. App. 475 (1, 2) ( 89 S.E. 607), holding: "While, under the laws of this State, a wife can not bind her separate estate by any contract of suretyship, nor by any assumption of the debts of her husband (Civil Code, § 3007), yet she may, upon her own responsibility and voluntarily, enter into a contract with another to render services for her husband and for his benefit, and from which she may receive no personal benefit; and for the value of such services she may be held liable under her contract. White v. Stocker, 85 Ga. 200 ( 11 S.E. 604); Hill v. Cooley, 112 Ga. 115 ( 37 S.E. 109); Johnson v. Leffler Co. 122 Ga. 670 ( 50 S.E. 488)." Also, see Stafford v. Birch, 189 Ga. 405 (1) ( 5 S.E.2d 744), and Freeman v. Coleman, 86 Ga. 590 ( 12 S.E. 1064), to the effect that a married woman is bound on a contract which is an original undertaking on her part. It was said in Freeman v. Coleman, supra: "It is too well settled, both by our statute and repeated adjudications, to require further discussion, that a married woman can not be bound by a contract of suretyship, but it may now be considered as settled that she may, upon her own responsibility, purchase goods for the benefit of another and execute notes and mortgages to secure the same; and when she does this, she is bound by her contract."
The petition set out a cause of action, and the court did not err in overruling the demurrer to the petition.
Judgment affirmed. Sutton, C.J., and Felton, J., concur.