Case Name: Jean Graf, Resp't, v. Simon Feist, App'lt
Court: New York Court of Common Pleas
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1894-08-01
Citations: 61 N.Y. St. Rep. 100
Docket Number: 
Parties: Jean Graf, Resp’t, v. Simon Feist, App’lt.
Judges: 
Reporter: New York State Reporter
Volume: 61
Pages: 100–102

Head Matter:
Jean Graf, Resp’t, v. Simon Feist, App’lt.
(New York Common Pleas, General Term,
Filed August 1, 1894.)
1. Evidence—Receipts.
A receipt for rent in full for a particular month is presumptive evidence that all rent previously accrued has been paid.
2. Husband and wife—Joint eakningb.
Where the wife works with her husband for another and their joint earnings are used to support the family, they belong to him in the absence of a special contract that she is to receive the avails of her labor.
Appeal from a judgment rendered in the district court in the city of New York for the eleventh judicial district.
Lawrence P. Mingey, for app’lt; Robert Goeller, for resp’t.

Opinion:
Bookstaver, J.
This action was brought by the plaintiff for the purpose of recovering for wages which he claimed to be due him as engineer, and for the services of his wife as janitress of certain premises belonging to the defendant. The defense was that the plaintiff and his wife had been discharged for misconduct on their part during the course of their employment, and also a counterclaim for goods sold the plaintiff or his wife. On the trial it appeared that the employment was a monthly one, and that a full month's services had been rendered by the plaintiff before his discharge. The proof as to the misconduct of the plaintiff was vague and uncertain, and we think the justice did not err in the conclusion to which he arrived upon the evidence before him. It is true that the plaintiff's testimony was somewhat contradictory, but the justice had all the parties before him and could better judge of the weight to be given to the testimony of the witnesses produced than we can possibly do. But it is clear that the justice erred in his calculation as to the amount due the plaintiff. The action was brought to recover the sum of $118.04. On the trial, after the plaintiff had rested his case, his counsel reduced the claim to $80.56. The defendant offered evidence in support .of his counterclaim, which amounted to the sum of $31.50, and which the justice allowed at $16.50. As found by the justice there was due the plaintiff for wages for the month of November, according to the contract between the parties, $50; for the work during the month of December, five days, for which he allowed $2.50 per day, amounting to $12.50; he also found that there was $7 due for services of the wife and $3.50 a balance for moneys expended for materials furnished in and about the premises. An examination of the receipts in evidence shows that instead of the balance being $3.50, it was in reality but $3.04. This together with the items above mentioned amounts to $72.54, or, as the justice states it, $73. It is obvious, therefore, that he aid not deduct the amount of the counterclaim from that sum, which would leave the true amount due the plaintiff, according to the justice's finding, $56.04. This error arose probably from the fact that copies of monthly bills had been introduced in evidence amounting in all to $27. But it is clear from plaintiff's testimony that these had all been paid, for he rendered a bill to the defendant for the month of November, which amounted to $84.54. upon which there was a credit of $4, reducing it to. $80.54, the exact amount claimed by him on the trial. When interrogated by the defendant's counsel aS to this November bill, he stated that there was no other debt existing from the defendant to him at the time for materials furnished, and repeated this statement when interrogated by the court in such a manner that there could be no mistake as to the matter. Besides this, the defendant introduced in evidence the receipt of the plaintiff for the month of November, showing payment in full for that month, and we appi'ehend that monthly bills of expenses fall within the rule as receipts for rent, and it has been held that such a receipt is presumptive evidence that all rent previously accrued has been paid. Decker v. Livingston, 15 Johns. 479. It is also contended that the court erred in allowing a recovery for the wife's services as janitress, on the ground that she had a right under the Married Woman's Act to sue individually. But the husband's testimony is that he made the arrangement with the defendant for the services of his wife as janitress, and there is no evidence that the defendant ever paid the wife individually, or intended to do so. In Blaechinska v. Howard Mission, 130 N. Y. 497; 42 St. Rep. 387, it was held that the wife works with her husband for another and their joint earnings are used to support the family, if there is no special contract that she is to receive the avails of her labor, they belong to him, and he isl entitled to recover their value; citing Birkbeck v. Ackroyd, 74 N. Y. 356; Bean v. Kiah, 4 Hun, 171.
The judgment must therefore be modified by reducing the principal amount to $56.04, to which are to be added the costs in the court below. No costs to either party upon this appeal.
Giegerich, J. concurs.