Title: Soto v. Vandeventer

State: new-mexico

Issuer: New Mexico Supreme Court

Document:

245 P.2d 826 (1952) 56 N.M. 483 SOTO et al. v. VANDEVENTER. No. 5508. Supreme Court of New Mexico. June 20, 1952. O'Sullivan & Dunleavy, Robert Emmet Clark, Albuquerque, for appellants. Rodey, Dickason, Sloan, Mims & Akin, John D. Robb, Albuquerque, for appellee. McGHEE, Justice. The question of whether a married woman in New Mexico has the right to prosecute in her own name a cause of action against one who negligently inflicts bodily injuries upon her in this state is squarely raised by this appeal. There is also raised the important question of whether the proceeds of a judgment on account thereof belong to the injured wife or are an asset of the community of herself and husband. The plaintiffs filed a complaint in two counts against the defendant because of physical injuries inflicted upon the wife's body through the claimed negligence of the defendant's employee. In the first count the wife seeks damages for her physical injury, pain and suffering, and in the second count her husband, as representative of the marital community, sought damages for economic and personal loss to him and such community. In New Mexico the wife's separate property is defined as: The husband's separate property is defined as: The questions involved have never been decided in New Mexico, but the other community property states except Louisiana (where a statute gives the cause of action to the wife) and Nevada (where the cause of action and the judgment for the injury, pain and suffering is held by judicial decision to belong to the wife) hold the cause of action, as well as the judgment for such injury, is property, and as such falls into the community as "other property" under identical or practically identical statutes as are quoted above. In Louisiana and Nevada the wife may prosecute the action in her own name and the judgment belongs to her. In California the wife may bring the action under a special statute but the judgment and its proceeds belong to the community. In the other community property states if the parties are living together the action must be brought in the name of the husband, or in the name of the husband and wife, and the recovery belongs to the community. Except in Louisiana and Nevada, the negligence of the husband is imputed to the wife and bars a recovery for the community on account of her injuries. The question of whether such a cause of action was community property was before this Court in Alarid v. Gordon, 35 N.M. 502, 2 P.2d 117, 118, but was not decided because of the state of the record. There the wife had stepped into an unlighted sewer ditch at night and brought suit in her name for her injuries, medical expenses, etc. Near the close of her case it was disclosed her husband had paid certain bills. At the close of her case the defendants moved for judgment on the ground that damages for personal injury to a married woman are community property and recoverable only at the suit of the husband, the head of the community. Thereupon the plaintiff asked leave to amend by joining her husband as a party plaintiff. He also formally asked to be permitted to join. These requests were granted and the joinder accomplished by filing an amended complaint. It was held the joinder of the husband made it unnecessary to decide whether the cause of action belonged in fact to the community. It was stated: The members of the Court participating in the case must have had serious doubts as to the reasoning of the courts holding such a cause of action to be community property, or else they would have there adopted the majority rule. The defendant asserted the cause of action was in the husband as head of the community; the plaintiffs did not seriously question the claim. The court, however, resisted the temptation to drift with the tide, and we have the question here presented in sharp conflict. The courts which follow the majority rule adopt the holding in Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Co. v. Dunn, 52 Ill. 260, 4 Am.Rep. 606, that a cause of action for personal injuries is property, and then say it falls into the community as "other *828 property" under the statute designating what is community property, disregarding the part of the opinion which says the cause of action belongs to the injured party. If there is any other reason stated in the many opinions of the courts following the majority rule, it has escaped our notice. California early adopted the community property system. In Sheldon v. The Uncle Sam, 1861, 18 Cal. 527, 79 Am.Dec. 193, the court, after stating the wife's injuries constituted a cause of action, said: In the year 1883, in Matthew v. Central Pacific Railroad Company, 63 Cal. 450, the Supreme Court of that state said: In Tell v. Gibson, 1884, 66 Cal. 247, 5 P. 223, the court again recognized the existence of two distinct causes of action, one for the injury to the wife, and the other for the damages sustained by the community, thus refuting any idea that the cause of action for the personal injuries of the wife was community property. In McFadden v. Santa Ana, O. & T. St. Ry. Co., 87 Cal. 464, 25 P. 681, 11 L.R.A. 252, the court, without even mentioning its prior decisions on the subject held the cause of action for personal injuries suffered by the wife was included in the term "other property," and was, therefore, community property. The courts of the other community states, except Texas, which follow the majority rule cite this case as their leading authority. The California courts have consistently followed this case except for a modification made by a District Court of Appeals in Franklin v. Franklin, 67 Cal. App. 2d 717, 155 P.2d 637, wherein it was held the cause of action for personal injuries belonged to the injured spouse, and the community had no interest until judgment was rendered. The Supreme Court of the state refused to review the decision, but in the later case of Zaragosa v. Craven, 33 Cal. 2d 315, 202 P.2d 73, 6 A.L.R.2d 461, it was disapproved. In this latter case the court, despite the able and well reasoned dissent of Justice Carter, held a judgment for the defendant in a case brought by the husband for personal injuries to himself was res judicata of the issues in a later case brought by the wife for injuries sustained by her in the same accident. The Nevada statute specifying what is community property is almost identical with ours and in Fredrickson & Watson Const. Co. v. Boyd, 60 Nev. 117, 102 P.2d 627, 628, it was held compensation for a personal injury belonged to the person injured. We quote from the opinion to show the reasoning of the court: In Hammonds v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 10 Cir., 106 F.2d 420, 422, Circuit Judge Phillips, a former New Mexico attorney and U.S. District Judge in the District of New Mexico, joined by Judge Bratton, also a former New Mexico attorney, District Judge and Justice of this Court, and Judge Williams, a former member of the Oklahoma Supreme Court, in determining what was community property, stated: In Morris v. Waring, 22 N.M. 175, 159 P. 1002, 1004, this Court said the doctrine that property acquired during marriage by exchange therefor of separate property remains separate property is contrary to the absolute letter of the statute, and was no doubt formulated by the courts out of necessity, and to render the right to separate property effective. It said: What do the students of community property law say of the rule that a cause of action for a personal injury of one spouse belongs to the community? In a short review of a California case involving the statute of limitations for a personal injury to a wife, the author, Orrin K. McMurray, former Dean of the College of Jurisprudence, University of California, called the doctrine utter nonsense, and further said: In an article by Green, The Texas Death Act, 26 Texas L.Rev. 461, the cases on the subject are discussed and the doctrine holding the cause of action belongs to the community is analyzed and, on the whole, strongly criticized. It also reviews the decision of the Nevada Supreme Court in Fredrickson & Watson Const. Co. v. Boyd, supra, with approval. Among other things, the author says: The author then quotes the following from the Nevada opinion: As heretofore shown, the California Supreme Court later repudiated the Franklin case. In McKay, Community Property, (2d Ed.) Sec. 378, it is stated: Before again quoting from McKay, it may be well to state it is undisputed that under Spanish law the right of action for the violation of the wife's right of personal security, as well as the right to the proceeds of the judgment, were in the wife. We now quote from Sec. 379, McKay, op. cit.: For an analysis of the decisions of the community property states the student is referred to the sections in McKay immediately following. In de Funiak, Principles of Community Property, Sec. 82, beginning on page 225, it is stated: It will be remembered this Court in the Waring case, supra, held property received in exchange for separate property continued to be separate property, thus refusing to follow the literal wording of the statute. The statement just quoted from de Funiak, op. cit., Sec. 82: is of special significance when we recall the holding of the Circuit Court of Appeals of the Tenth Circuit in the Hammonds case, supra, where Judge Phillips said [106 F.2d 422]: While, of course, the opinion of the Circuit Court of Appeals is not binding upon us, still, because of the identity of its author and the other judges participating, it is entitled to great weight in a consideration of this case. We are of the opinion that reason, justice and a fair interpretation of our community statute, construed either in the light of the common or Spanish law, require that we hold the cause of action for the personal injury to the wife, and for the resultant pain and suffering, belongs to the wife, and that the judgment and its proceeds are her separate property. She brought her body to the marriage and on its dissolution is entitled to take it away; she is similarly entitled to compensation from one who has wrongfully violated her right to personal security. If any writer has ever said a kind word for the majority holding, it has escaped our notice. Under the majority doctrine, if the wife were riding a horse she had brought to the marriage and some driver of a motor vehicle negligently struck her and the horse, throwing both into a wire fence, breaking the leg of each and also disfiguring them, the cause of action for the damage to the horse would belong to the wife, but that for the injury to her would belong to the community and the husband would receive one half of the proceeds of a judgment. In addition, the husband could, if he desired, refuse to bring suit for the injuries *833 the wife had sustained. We decline to adopt such a rule in New Mexico. The cause of action for the damages to the community for medical expenses, loss of services to the community, as well as loss of earnings, if any, of the wife still belongs to the community, and the husband as its head is the proper party to bring such an action against one who wrongfully injures the wife. Section 19-606, N.M.S.A., 1941 Comp., permits a married women to sue and be sued as if she were unmarried. This gives her authority to institute and maintain an action for her physical injuries, pain and suffering in her own name without the joinder of her husband. We conclude, therefore, that each count of the complaint stated a cause of action and under our Rules of Civil Procedure were properly joined, and that the trial court erred in dismissing the first count. The judgment dismissing the first count and directing a severance will be reversed, and the cause remanded to the District Court to set aside such judgment, reinstate the first count and proceed in accordance with the views herein expressed. It is so ordered. LUJAN, C.J., and SADLER, COMPTON, and COORS, JJ., concur.