Case ID: me_35/html/0089-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "\n      Howard, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Starbird versus Inhabitants of Frankfort.
    For an injury done to the wife through a defect in the highway, no action against the town can he maintained in the name of the husband alone.
    In a suit for such an injury, the husband and the wife must join.
    On Report from Nisi Prius, Siiepley, C. J. presiding.
    Action of the Case, brought in the name of a husband alone, to recover against a town for an injury sustained by his wife, through a defect in the highway.
    The Chief Justice being of opinion that such an action was unmaintainable, the plaintiff submitted to a nonsuit, which is to be taken off, if the action, on proof of the facts alleged, is sustainable.
    Knowles, for the plaintiff.
    
      Kelley, for the defendants.
   Howard, J.

— The statute, c. 25, <§> 89, upon which this action is founded, has received a construction in the cases of Reed v. Belfast, 20 Maine, 246, and Sanford v. Augusta, 32 Maine, 536.

In the case last named, it was decided that all damages occasioned by an injury to the wife, through a defect in a highway, might be recovered against the town, in an action commenced in the names of the husband and wife. It follows from the same construction, that an action cannot be maintained upon the statute, by the husband alone, for damages occasioned by an injury to his wife. Nonsuit confirmed.

Tenney, Rice and Appleton, J. J., concurred.