Opinion
(February Term, 1890)
Justice of the Peace — Jurisdiction — Married Women.
A Justice of the Peace has jurisdiction of an action against a married woman to recover a debt contracted prior to her marriage.
This was a CIVIL ACTION, begun before a Justice of the Peace, and tried before Graves, J., at February Term, 1890, of LENOIR Superior Court.
Mr. N.J. Rouse, for the plaintiff.
Messrs. H. E. Shaw and Clement Manly, for the defendants.
From judgment dismissing the action, plaintiff appealed.
The only question presented is whether a Justice of the Peace has jurisdiction of an action against a married woman to recover a debt contracted prior to her marriage. This is not an open question. It has been held that he has. Neville v. Pope, 95 N.C. 346. (131) The Code, § 1823, expressly provides that the liability of a feme sole "shall not be altered or impaired" by her marriage. Dougherty v. Sprinkle, 88 N.C. 300, which holds that a Justice of the Peace has not jurisdiction of an action against a married woman, applies only to liabilities incurred by her while a feme covert, and not even to them in cases where she is a free trader, or the proceeding is to enforce a laborer's lien. The Code, §§ 1790, 1828, 1831 and 1832; Smaw v. Cohen, 95 N.C. 85.
Error.
Cited: Beville v. Cox, 107 N.C. 177; Darden v. Steamboat Co., Ib., 443; Beville v. Cox, 109 N.C. 269; Harvey v. Johnson, 133 N.C. 363; Scott v. Ferguson, 152 N.C. 348; Lancaster v. Lancaster, 178 N.C. 23.