Case Title: Chipp v. Murray

Citation: 191 Kan. 73, 379 P.2d 297

Docket Number: 43,044

State: kansas

Court: Kansas Supreme Court

Date: 1963-03-02T00:00:00Z

Document:
191 Kan. 73 (1963)
379 P.2d 297
VIRGIL CHIPP, d/b/a CONFIDENTIAL INVESTIGATION BUREAU, Appellant,
v.
HOWARD T. MURRAY, Appellee.
No. 43,044

Supreme Court of Kansas.
Opinion filed March 2, 1963.
Clyde Wendelken, of Wichita, argued the cause, and Henry Martz and Elliott Fry, both of Wichita, were with him on the brief for the appellant.
Grey Dresie, of Wichita, argued the cause, and J. Paul Jorgensen, also of Wichita, was with him on the brief for the appellee.
The opinion of the court was delivered by
SCHROEDER, J.:
This is an action by a private detective against a divorced man for services performed under a contract independently made by the man's wife prior to the divorce. The trial court sustained a demurrer to the petition and appeal has been duly perfected.
The question presented is whether detective services for the wife were "necessaries" for which the husband is presumed to have pledged his credit.
On the 12th day of October, 1961, Virgil Chipp, d/b/a Confidential Investigation Bureau (appellant) filed an action in the district court of Sedgwick County, Kansas, against Howard T. Murray (appellee). Insofar as the petition is material to the issue herein, it alleged:
Near the end of the petition it was alleged:
It was alleged the plaintiff continued the performance of these services until the 5th day of June, 1961, when Mrs. Murray was granted an absolute decree of divorce from Howard T. Murray; and that Mrs. Murray paid the plaintiff a retainer fee of $100 on the 24th day of May, 1960, and an additional $280 on the account. The balance remaining due and unpaid and for which suit was filed against the defendant, after repeated demands, was $4,118, which is alleged to have been due on the 5th day of June, 1961, the date of the rendition of the divorce.
No allegation is made that the trial court was in any way confronted with this indebtedness in the divorce action. (See, Murray v. Murray, 189 Kan. 679, 371 P.2d 125.)
There is no Kansas case law in point, and very little in other states.
The only case law available holds that unless the wife is left destitute, and the services of a detective are necessary to secure necessities for herself and children, the husband is not chargeable with the cost of the services of a private detective independently employed by the wife. (Lanyon's Detective Agency v. Cochrane, 240 N.Y. 274, 148 N.E. 520; and Dawson v. Greenberg, 169 N.Y.S.2d 143; and see, 17 Am.Jur., Divorce and Separation, § 631, p. 706.)
No allegation is made in the petition herein that the wife was left destitute, or that the detective's services were necessary to obtain necessities to support the wife or children. This is not the theory of the appellant's case, and we do not, therefore, pass upon this point.
The appellant relies on Gossett v. Patten, 23 Kan. 340. There a husband sued his wife for divorce, charging her with committing *75 acts derogatory to her character, and it was necessary, in order to protect her character and good name, for her to employ counsel to defend her. Counsel so employed performed services charging them to the husband. The wife had no estate or means to pay for the services. When she applied to the court in the divorce case for the allowance of alimony pendente lite, including suit money, the husband dismissed the action before the court rendered its decision on her application. It was held a subsequent action by the wife's attorney before a justice court for the value of his services necessarily rendered in the divorce action was proper, the court saying:
The appellant states few husbands would be willing to furnish money to a wife for detective fees to his own personal detriment. He then argues:
The appellant contends that a progressive, realistic interpretation of G.S. 1949, 60-1507, warrants the inclusion of detective fees for services rendered a wife in a divorce suit on the ground that detective fees are as much a "necessity" as attorney fees.
The statutory authorization requiring a husband to pay a reasonable attorney fee for the wife's attorney in a divorce action is found in G.S. 1949, 60-1507, as follows:
First it must be noted the statute authorizes the court to make a fee allowance only in divorce cases. This is not a divorce case but an independent action. We think the plain interpretation of the statute discloses that it has no application to fees for a detective. Here the services of the detective were engaged more than a year prior to the divorce decree and long prior to the filing of the divorce action.
We think it unnecessary to go into a full discussion as to what constitutes "necessaries." (See, 26 Am. Jur., Husband and Wife, § 375, p. 972.) Generally, it may be said necessaries include those things needed and suitable to the rank and condition of the spouses and the style of life they have adopted. What necessaries are in kind and amount is to be determined in each case by the means, ability, social position and circumstances of both husband and wife.
The implied authority of the wife, where it exists, to pledge the credit of her husband seems to arise from the marriage relation itself, if not as an incident essential to its preservation, certainly as a consequence of its continued existence, and not as a power reserved for its destruction.
We hold in the eyes of the law the services of a detective to unearth the reputation, character, assets and activities of a husband at the instance of the wife is not a necessity for which the husband will be presumed to have pledged his credit by reason of the marriage relationship.
The judgment of the lower court is affirmed.