Citations
- 31 Tex. 670
Full opinion text
Morrill, C. J.
—When the congress of the Republic of Texas, through the influence of a disciple of Coke, passed, an act introducing the common law of England to be the rule of decision of the republic, it was fortunate for the female branch of the human family that there were in that legislative assembly those who were unwilling that wives should occupy the station assigned them by the common law of England. So discordant is the common law of England with the statutes declaring marital rights — so utterly inconsistent is that law, which merges the political and judicial existence of a woman in her husband on marriage, with the laws that concede to a wife her separate rights of property and person, and a standing in the judicial tribunals to sue for and defend them — that a system of jurisprudence based upon a mixture of these incongruities, cannot be otherwise than discrepant and incongruous. A verification of these remarks may be found in the reports of this state.
The question for adjudication, stripped of all superfluity, is simply whether a woman who, with a supposed husband, but in reality not her husband, made a note in consideration of a slave purchased by her, is liable to pay the note.
The statute [Paschal’s Dig., Art. 4641] provides, that X