Court Opinion

ID: 9703167
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 23:43:32.412774+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:13:23.043894
License: Public Domain

Rodowsky, J.,

dissenting:

I agree that this Court has the power to decide, based on the ERA, or on evolving common law grounds, that the necessaries doctrine applies alike to both sexes. An expanded application, on a prospective basis, should be the holding of this case.
The majority’s apprehension over the sweep of a sex neutral rule is, in my view, not justified either by an analysis of the rule as it operated at common law or as it operates under equal credit opportunity acts. Further, the ERA and acts of the General Assembly have made it plain beyond doubt that family support obligations are no longer exclusively imposed on the male. Contrary to that policy, the Court has in this case opted to void a support remedy, rather than expand it. The Court has eradicated the necessaries doctrine without expressing any consideration of its possible significance in current society. Because until today the law of necessaries has historically been relied upon by persons who sell goods or render services without being paid in full, in cash, in advance, I believe the doctrine’s judicial abrogation to be most unwise. That abrogation of the doctrine, rather than its extension to credit worthy women, is done in the name of the ERA strikes me as Orwellian.
I
A sex neutral application of the necessaries doctrine would not, in my opinion, have the effect of automatically converting every purchase of necessaries by a husband into a joint obligation with his wife. The majority seems to assume it would. It is clear to me that had Maureen S. Condore (Maureen) been the spouse admitted to Prince George’s General Hospital (the Hospital) under facts *534otherwise identical to those presented here, the Hospital, as plaintiff, would not be entitled to a summary judgment against the husband, Louis Condore (Louis), under the common law doctrine of necessaries. The majority assumes that in a reversed situation, Louis would have no defense and that, consequently, Maureen has no legal defense except on constitutional grounds. Because this assumption appears to weigh heavily with the Court in resolving the ultimate question against retention and, thereby, non-discriminatory application of the necessaries doctrine, the validity under Maryland law of that assumption should be examined. It may conveniently be tested on the facts of this case.
Here the Hospital in no way relies on an express contract with Maureen. The Hospital does not contend that Louis was in fact the agent of Maureen. Nor does the Hospital rest its case on some cousins of the necessaries doctrine which may easily be confused with it, e.g., a presumption of actual authority 1 or apparent authority based upon a course of dealing.2 The Hospital’s position is that its medical services were necessaries, that they were rendered to Louis, that Maureen was the wife of Louis throughout the relevant period and that, because Louis would be liable under the *535doctrine of necessaries on these facts had Maureen been the patient, Maureen is liable as a result of the adoption of the ERA. One flaw in the Hospital’s analysis is that it totally ignores to whom credit was extended by the Hospital, that is, whose credit was "pledged.”
This Court, as recently as 1969, had occasion to review the various theories underlying the doctrine of necessaries. In Dudley v. Montgomery Ward & Co., 255 Md. 247, 251, 257 A.2d 437, 439-40, which was a merchant’s action against the husband where the spouses were separated, we said:
Generally, a husband has a duty to support his wife and if he fails to do so will be liable to pay one who furnishes the wife necessaries even though the couple are living apart voluntarily or without the fault of the wife. We need not discuss or decide the theories variously relied on to impose this liability on the husband. One view — apparently the Maryland view, see McFerren v. Goldsmith-Stem Co., 137 Md. 573 — is that the wife becomes an agent of the husband to pledge his credit. This agency has been called "implied,” "of necessity” and "compulsory.” 41 Am. Jur. 2d Husband and Wife § 349; 2 Williston, Contracts (3d ed.) § 270A, p. 151. The Restatement-Restitution suggests that the true basis may be the rules making up the doctrine of unjust enrichment. [Footnote omitted.] [Emphasis added.]
A consistent theme in our cases on necessaries under the common law has been the concept that it is a pledge of the husband’s credit. Accordingly, we have recognized both in holdings and in dicta, that the husband was not liable to the third party if, under the facts of the particular case, the extension of credit by the third party was solely to the wife.
Jones v. Joel Gutman & Co., 88 Md. 355, 41 A. 792 (1898) involved the new bride, age 31, of a 71 year old widower. Upon finding that the groom’s home, which became the marital abode, reflected simple tastes, including using horse *536blankets on the beds, the bride applied to the plaintiff for credit. She received the following letter: " 'In response to your application for an account with us, we will be pleased to comply therewith and await your instructions in regard to the same.’ ” Id. at 362-63, 41 A. at 793. When the bills came in and the husband refused to pay, he was sued on theories including liability for necessaries and a presumption of actual authority. Judgment against the husband was reversed and a new trial awarded based on errors in the instructions. One prayer requested by the defendant was that "[i]f the jury find that the plaintiffs gave credit to the wife of the defendant, then their verdict must be for the defendant.” It was held that this instruction should have been granted because the "correspondence furnished some evidence, that the credit was given to the wife, and if the jury found that fact the plaintiff was not entitled to recover.” Id. at 368, 41 A. at 795. Weisker v. Lowenthal, 31 Md. 413 (1869) was cited in support of this ruling.
Weisker was not a necessaries case. It was a claim by a seller against the husband for goods sold in 1860 to the wife as a feme covert trader. Judgment for the husband, based on a jury verdict, was affirmed on appeal. At 416 of 31 Md. this Court said:
The liability of the husband for goods sold to the wife, upon his credit, and by his authority, or assent, either express or implied, cannot be questioned. In such cases, she becomes his agent, and the principles of law incident to that relation, necessarily attach.
If, however, the goods are sold to the wife, upon her credit solely, the husband will not be liable, although the sale may have been made with his knowledge, and by his assent. [Emphasis in text.]
Noel v. O’Neill, 128 Md. 202, 97 A. 513 (1916), presented a claim by a department store against a widow for the balance on an account reflecting purchases made during her marriage. The account was'in the name of the wife but there was evidence that the husband had directed the bills to be *537sent to his office from which they were paid. Judgment against the wife was reversed and a new trial awarded. We held that the form of account was by no means conclusive of the question whether credit was given exclusively to the wife. One reversible error was the failure to grant an instruction requested by the wife which would have charged, in substance, that the husband had a duty to supply the necessities of life and that, if the articles purchased were necessities, there was a presumption that the husband had "pledged his own individual credit for the payment thereof’ and that the burden was upon the plaintiff to show "that said articles were not delivered upon credit extended by the plaintiff to Lthe husband], but on the contrary, were delivered solely upon credit extended by the plaintiff to the [wife].” Id. at 207-208, 97 A. at 515.
An unambiguous holding that the husband was not liable for necessaries furnished solely on the credit of the wife is found in Farver v. Pickett, 162 Md. 10, 158 A. 29 (1932). The husband, administrator c.t.a. of his wife’s estate, reimbursed himself from the estate for certain payments which he had made, including the funeral bill, a grocery bill and a medical bill. Residuary legatees challenged the allowance of these charges. The wife had imposed the funeral expense obligation on her estate by suitable provision in her will. This Court then addressed the other allowances and held:
The propriety of charging the other disputed items against the estate of the testatrix depends upon an inquiry as to whether they represent debts for which she was independently liable .... In this state a married woman is legally capable of contracting debts on her individual responsibility for which her estate may be chargeable. The husband is not liable for a debt thus contracted upon the wife’s sole credit. Weisker v. Lowenthal, 31 Md. 413; Jones v. Gutman, 88 Md. 355, 41 A. 792, Code art. 45, sec. 5. The creation of an exclusive liability on the part of the wife may be express or implied. [cit. om.] In this case the evidence sufficiently proves that, either expressly or by implication, the *538testatrix alone was given the credits, and assumed the obligations, represented by the claims for medical services and for food supplies to which we have referred .... [162 Md. at 12, 158 A. at 30.]
In Kerner v. Eastern Hospital, 210 Md. 375, 123 A.2d 333 (1956), the husband and wife had been separated for 30 years, without divorce. The plaintiff hospital had obtained summary judgment against the husband, on the theory of liability for necessaries, for the balance due on its bill for a long confinement. Summary judgment was reversed because the husband’s affidavit contradicted the assertion of an express promise on his part and also, in effect, raised desertion by the wife in defense of the necessaries claim. Additionally, this Court observed that the hospital had "failed to allege that it had extended credit to [the husband].” Id. at 382, 123 A.2d at 337.
The element of the common law doctrine which required the use by the wife of the credit of the husband is also reflected in the following Maryland cases: Ewell v. State, 207 Md. 288, 292, 114 A.2d 66, 69 (1955) ("The husband had an obligation of support, which was to furnish necessaries to the wife. If he did not, her remedy was to purchase the necessaries on his credit.”); Gregg v. Gregg, 199 Md. 662, 667, 87 A.2d 581, 583 (1952) ("It is, of course, true that not everything purchased by the wife is a necessary, and it is also true that a wife may purchase even necessaries on her own faith and credit, and cannot require her husband’s estate to pay for them.”); Anderson v. Carter, 175 Md. 540, 542, 2 A.2d 677, 678 (1938) (Cost of necessary services and supplies to deceased wife properly charged against husband’s distributive share in wife’s estate where there was "no suggestion in the exceptions, and no evidence in the record, that the bills were incurred upon the wife’s sole credit... .”). See also Annot., Liability of Husband for Necessaries as Affected by Question Whether or Not They Were Purchased on His Credit, 27 A.L.R. 554 (1923) ("The rule appears to be well settled, both at common law and under modern statutes, that if the credit for necessaries furnished to the wife is given *539exclusively to her, the husband is not ordinarily liable therefor . .. .”).
When these principles are applied to the case at bar, it is clear to me that the Hospital has failed to present, on summary judgment, a case in which, had Maureen been the spouse admitted for hospitalization, Louis would have been liable for the bill under the necessaries doctrine. The hospital admission form for Louis’ admission of November 4, 1976 concludes with the printed statement "I/We hereby certify that the above statements are true and I/we guarantee payment to Prince George’s General Hospital of all charges incurred by the above patient from date of admission until discharge.” There follows a line for "patient’s signature” which Louis did not sign, next to which is a line for the signature of "person responsible” which Louis, and only Louis, signed.
The body of the Hospital’s admission form is divided into five general sections. The first relates to the patient, the next to "spouse or nearest relative,” the third to "credit,” the fourth to "social services” and the fifth to "liability.” This latter section is not relevant here. It relates only to accidents and was not completed in the instant case. The admission sheet was completed basically in typewriting. In the patient section one block calls for "primary insurance.” This was completed, and the information set forth was, at some time, circled. The information is illegible in the exhibit filed in the record extract. In the space for the address of the primary insurer there appear in longhand the words "Wife Maureen.” Maureen’s affidavit in this case states that her husband "had hospitalization insurance coverage under the Mail Handlers’ Benefit Plan” and that it covered 100% of the costs of indicated services but that the insurer refused to pay the claim for services rendered subsequent to the death of Louis. The block in the patient’s section of the admission sheet for "responsible party” reads: "Condore, Louis.” The patient’s employer, and type and length of employment, are recorded. Maureen is listed as the wife with the same home address as Louis. Her place, type and length of employment are also recorded.
*540The "credit” section of the admission sheet is designed to elicit information concerning the "bank,” "landlord or mortgage holder,” "automobile-make & year” and "credit reference.” This section, as well as the "social service” section, was not completed at all.
One conclusion from the facts evidenced by this admission sheet is that the Hospital, in extending credit in connection with Louis’ admission, was looking to the hospitalization insurance and thereafter solely to the credit of Louis. Under the Maryland authorities reviewed above, expanded to make the doctrine of necessaries sex neutral, the Hospital would not be entitled to summary judgment.
In this case, Maureen also moved for summary judgment as defendant. If the necessaries doctrine were expanded, this is not, in my opinion, a case where summary judgment could be entered for the defendant. While Louis signed the account, and the billing by the Hospital was addressed to Louis, these factors are not conclusive. See Noel v. O’Neill, supra. Further, there is an inference that the Hospital also looked to the credit of Maureen. The application does elicit that Maureen was employed for 4 years as a secretary at the General Accounting Office. The record is silent whether this information was elicited to enable the Hospital to make contact with the nearest relative or spouse during working hours, or whether it was obtained for credit purposes. Were this case to be tried under a sex neutral necessaries rule, evidence would have to be taken and evaluated in light of the credit practices of the Hospital which, at the time of admission, is not dealing with a request for a specific amount of credit.
At common law, whether purchases by a wife were exclusively on her credit, in which event her husband was not liable under the necessaries doctrine, or whether the wife pledged the husband’s credit, in which event the necessaries theory applied, the creditor selling the goods or services presumably made a judgment that the person to whom he looked for repayment was an acceptable credit risk. Thus, if the common law necessaries rule were expanded to *541include women, two factors would operate against the wholesale imposition of liability on unsuspecting wives. First, a husband as a practical matter cannot pledge the wife’s credit if she has none. The issue in this case only involves women who have assets or earnings. Second, the husband could purchase necessaries exclusively on his own credit, and the expanded common law rule would not automatically drag in the liability of the wife.
II
An even handed extension of the Maryland common law rule would mean that a contract for necessaries made by the husband could be either with or without pledging the credit of the wife. Liability of the wife, under such a rule, would turn on the facts of each case. Proof of relevant facts is common to all litigation. If the fact of the matter is that credit was extended on the basis of the credit worthiness of a non-contracting female spouse, it seems to me to be consistent with the ERA to apply the necessaries doctrine to permit recovery against her under those circumstances. Any concern that creditors will improperly assert that their decision to extend credit in the name of one spouse was based in part on the credit worthiness of the non-contracting spouse, when such is not the fact, fails to take into account the effect of recent statutes regulating the obtaining by a creditor of information concerning sex and marital status in considering applications for credit. The Federal Equal Credit Opportunity Act, Title 15 U.S.C. §§ 1691-1691f became effective October 28, 1975. The Maryland Equal Credit Opportunity Act, Md. Code (1975, 1980 Cum. Supp.), §§ 12-701 through 12-708 of the Commercial Law Article was effective July 1, 1975.
Pursuant to the federal act, Regulation B, 12 C.F.R. §§ 202.1-202.13, has been adopted. The regulation prohibits a creditor from requesting the marital status of an applicant for an individual, unsecured, credit account in other than community property states. § 202.5 (d) (1). Under § 202.5 (c) *542(1) and (2) a creditor may not request any information concerning the spouse of an applicant unless:
(i) The spouse will be permitted to use the account; or
(ii) The spouse will be contractually liable upon the account; or
(iii) The applicant is relying on the spouse’s income as a basis for repayment of the credit requested; or
(iv) The applicant resides in a community property State ...; or
(v) The applicant is relying on alimony, child support, or separate maintenance payments
The Maryland Act includes as a creditor "any person who regularly: (1) [ejxtends, renews or continues credit for personal, family or household purposes ....”§ 12-701 (e) of the Commercial Law Article. Prohibited discriminatory practices under the Maryland Act include any:
(5) Request for or consideration of the credit rating of an applicant’s spouse where the applicant is otherwise credit worthy and is not applying for a joint account unless the applicant lists credit references in the name of spouse or former spouse or has no individual prior credit history or the creditor permits the applicant to designate the applicant’s spouse as an authorized purchaser on the account. [§ 12-705.]
The creditor who has not genuinely looked to the credit of a non-contracting spouse will find it difficult at best to demonstrate, after the fact, that he did so where the credit extension has been made after the effective date of these statutory and regulatory prohibitions. On the other hand, creditors who have properly elicited credit information as to a non-contracting spouse after the advent of equal credit *543opportunity legislation would ordinarily have credit applications reflecting that fact.3
The sex discrimination in the common law necessaries rule is that it applies only where the non-contracting party whose credit is pledged is the male spouse. The doctrine can be brought into compliance with the ERA by expanding it to a sex neutral one. Because equal credit opportunity statutes today restrict creditor excursions into the credit worthiness of a non-contracting spouse unless, in essence, the information is required for a non-discriminatory credit granting decision, I believe such an expanded rule can operate fairly and practically. In my view the decision to expand or extinguish the common law rule should be approached with the recognition that there is a reasonable alternative to abolishing actions for the value of necessaries.
Ill
The doctrine of necessaries is simply a remedy. It is one of a number of remedies for enforcement of the husband’s common law duty to support the wife. H. Clark, The Law of Domestic Relations in the United States 189-92 (1968). If, on the day following adoption of the ERA, this Court were called upon to decide whether the common law duty of the husband to support his wife would be struck down as unconstitutional, or whether the duty of support would in some way be made reciprocal, I have no doubt that the result of that hypothetical case would have been to extend the duty on a sexually neutral basis.
Today in Maryland the spousal support obligation is mutual. Coleman v. State, 37 Md. App. 322, 377 A.2d 553 (1977) presented an ERA challenge to the criminal non-support statute then codified as Md. Code (1957, 1976 Repl. Vol.), Art. 27, § 88 (a) under which it was a misdemeanor for any person, without just cause, to "desert or *544willfully neglect to provide for the support and maintenance of his wife ....” The Court of Special Appeals there held:
Measured against the clear command of the Equal Rights Amendment, there is no question that § 88 (a) cannot pass muster. To establish that it is a crime for the husband to desert his wife but no crime for a wife to desert her husband and to establish that it is a crime for a husband to fail to support his wife but no crime for his wife to fail to support her husband is to establish a distinction solely on the basis of sex. [37 Md. App. at 327-28, 377 A.2d at 556.]
Because that case was concerned only with disparate criminality of the same conduct, it was unnecessary for the intermediate appellate court to discuss whether the effect of the ERA had been to impose on the wife a duty of support, for the violation of which there was no criminal sanction. The legislative response to Coleman was Chapter 921 of the Acts of 1978, effective July 1, 1978. The title of that bill states it is for "the purpose of extending the criminal prohibition against willful nonsupport to all spouses.” Today, Md. Code (1957, 1976 Repl. Vol., 1980 Cum. Supp.), Art. 27, § 88 (a) applies to a person who willfully neglects to provide for the support and maintenance "of his or her spouse ....” Because the willful failure of a wife to support her husband is subject to criminal sanction, there is necessarily an underlying duty of support running from a wife to her husband. Consequently, a decision in the instant case to expand the doctrine to embrace necessaries furnished the male spouse will not be imposing a duty of support on the female spouse. The duty is already there, at least by statute.
That the duty of support is no longer limited to the husband is also demonstrated by the support remedy of alimony. Today, "[i]n granting a limited or absolute divorce, annulment, or alimony, the court may award alimony to either party . . . .” Md. Code (1957, 1981 Repl. Vol.), Art. 16, § 1 (a). The civil remedy provided under Art. 16, § 5B for spousal, and child, non-support, by way of a lien on the *545earnings of a delinquent provider, is sexually neutral, as is the Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Act, Md. Code (1957, 1979 Repl. Vol.), Art. 89C and particularly § 2 (h) and (i).
Similarly, today, by Art. 16, § 3, a "court may from time to time, before or after the granting of a divorce ... order one party to pay to the other a reasonable amount for the reasonable and necessary expenses, including suit money, attorney’s fees and costs, of instituting or defending any proceeding, or any proceeding to enforce an award” under the alimony title of Art. 16.
With respect to child support, in Rand v. Rand, 280 Md. 508, 374 A.2d 900 (1977), this Court addressed, under the ERA, its decisions which had continued to apply the common law rule that a father is primarily liable for the support of his minor children notwithstanding the provisions of Md. Code (1957, 1970 Repl. Vol., 1976 Supp.), Art. 72A, § 1 which since 1929 had equally charged the father and mother with the care of their minor child and which since 1951 had extended the responsibility "for support of a minor child to both parents.” "Applying the mandate of the E.R.A.” we held "that the parental obligation for child support ... is one shared by both parents.” 280 Md. at 516, 374 A.2d at 905.
In the state of Florida family support obligations have been equalized in the last decade by legislative action in much the same way as they have been equalized in Maryland. In Florida an equal rights amendment to the state constitution was proposed, but rejected. Nevertheless, based solely on the legislative expansion of support obligations to both sexes, the Florida Court of Appeals has held that a wife is liable for the necessaries of her husband. Manatee Convalescent Center, Inc. v. McDonald, 392 So. 2d 1356 (Fla. App. 1980).4 Were this Court to conclude, as did the Florida court, that the non-support remedy provided by the doctrine of necessaries is to be enlarged, this Court would not be taking upon itself the resolution of a broad policy issue. A course in the direction of expansion of the remedies *546underlying duties of support in the family has already been clearly charted and traveled by the General Assembly.5
IV
A substantial deficiency which I find in the Court’s resolution of the expansion versus extinction issue is that no consideration is given to the effect of the extinction choice. However, other courts which have had to decide much the same question as that presented here, have concluded to retain the necessaries doctrine because they have recognized its continued value.
As the majority notes, the Supreme Court of New Jersey in Jersey Shore Medical Center-Fitkin Hospital v. Baum, 84 N.J. 137, 417 A.2d 1003 (1980), when faced with an equal protection challenge to the New Jersey common law of necessaries, determined to retain the doctrine, albeit in a modified form. That court rejected the extinction alternative for reasons which are sound, and to me, compelling.
There are various alternatives available in establishing a gender-neutral rule for the payment of necessary expenses incurred by either spouse. One alternative is to read literally the Married Woman’s Act, N.J.S.A. 37:2-10 and 15. That act forms a gender-neutral scheme under which each spouse is independent of the other. However, literal application of the act would leave creditors of a dependent spouse without recourse to the only realistic source of payment, the financially independent spouse. The act tends to ignore that in a modern marriage husbands and wives, whether they contribute income or domestic services, are a financial unit. A necessary expense incurred by one spouse benefits both. In a viable marriage, husbands and wives ordinarily do not distinguish their financial obligations on the basis of which one incurred the debt. *547Consequently, literal application of the Married Woman’s Act would not comport with the expectations of husbands, wives, or their creditors. [Id. at 149, 417 A.2d at 1009.]
The Supreme Court of Wisconsin was urged, in a case decided November 25, 1980, to abolish that state’s common law necessaries doctrine on the ground that it had lost "continued vitality” and that it "conflicts with contemporary trends toward equality of the sexes and a sex neutral society.” Sharpe Furniture, Inc. v. Buckstaff, 99 Wis. 2d 114, 299 N.W.2d 219, 222 (1980). The wife, a homemaker, had signed in her own name a special order for a $621.50 sofa. Her husband earned a substantial income. A judgment against the husband entered by the trial court and affirmed by the intermediate appellate court was affirmed by the Wisconsin Supreme Court for reasons which are equally applicable here.
We are of the opinion that the doctrine of necessaries serves a legitimate and proper purpose in our system of common law. The heart of this common law rule is a concern for the support and the sustenance of the family and the individual members thereof. The sustenance of the family unit is accorded a high order of importance in the scheme of Wisconsin law. It has been codified as a part of our statutes, see e.g., sec. 767.08, Stats., and it has been recognized as a part of our case law. See Zachman v. Zachman, 9 Wis. 2d 335, 338, 101 N.W.2d 55 (1960). The necessaries rule encourages the extension of credit to those who in an individual capacity may not have the ability to make these basic purchases. In this manner it facilitates the support of the family unit and its function is in harmony with the purposes behind the support laws of this state. The rule retains a viable role in modem society. [Id. at 222 (Emphasis supplied).]
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania has held that the Pennsylvania ERA *548imposes a sex neutral burden of support, including necessaries, so that a wife was liable to the government for the cost of legal representation provided to her husband by the Federal Defender. United States v. O’Neill, 478 F. Supp. 852 (E.D. Pa. 1979). It said:
We reach our conclusion in favor of the government, however, by applying the common law of Pennsylvania. In Pennsylvania, a husband has a legal duty to support his wife and children. "When he neglects this duty, one who supplies necessaries for their support is entitled to recover their cost in an action under the common law, which raises an implied promise by the husband to repay.” Jenkins v. Jenkins, 246 Pa.Super. 455, 371 A.2d 925 (1977). In Kurpiewski v. Kurpiewski, 254 Pa.Super. 489, 386 A.2d 55 (1978), the court held that the Equal Rights Amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution imposes a sex-neutral burden of support. Therefore a wife can be liable for the costs of necessaries provided to her husband so long as it is shown she is capable of bearing the financial burden. [Id. at 854.]
In Lipshy v. Lipshy, 525 S.W.2d 222, 227 (Tex. Civ. App. 1975) the husband contended that an award of $45,000 as attorney’s fees to his wife in a divorce action was based on sex and violated the Texas ERA. The court held that, the amendment "does not simply preclude recovery by a woman” and that factors such as disparate earning capacities, business opportunities and ability "may justify the recovery of an attorney’s fee by the husband rather than by the wife.” Accord, Perkins v. Freeman, 501 S.W.2d 424 (Tex. Civ. App. 1973), rev’d on other grounds, 518 S.W.2d 532 (Tex. 1974).6
*549V
One industry in which the necessaries doctrine has traditionally been, and is currently, of particular significance is retailing. Consequently, the continued vitality of the law of necessaries finds recognition in current statutes which affect, inter alia, retail credit. Most meaningful to the present case is the recognition of the necessaries doctrine by the Maryland General Assembly, after adoption of the ERA, in this state’s equal credit opportunity act.
Historically, where the wife was the homemaker and purchaser of clothing and household items, and the husband was the income producer, retail charge accounts were maintained in the name of the wife. In that form of doing business, the ultimate legal remedy for collection from the credit worthy, but non-contracting spouse, is the necessaries doctrine. An annotation, Husband’s Liability to Third Person for Necessaries Furnished to Wife Separated from Him, 60 A.L.R.2d 7, 25 (1958), describes the common practice as follows:
For some reason the merchants commonly carry family charge accounts in the name of the wife and mail bills which are addressed to her, even though they know that the husband is the only one who has the money with which to make payment and that the payment must be made by him or with money supplied by him. In view of this practice, the fact that the account is thus carried and the bills are thus rendered, while some evidence on the issue, does not necessarily establish that the merchant does not rely on the credit of the husband.
The "reason” was that" '[m]ost consumer credit customers are women, but a married woman’s account is usually based on the credit of her husband.’ ” Hoffman, Sex in the Money *550Market, 2 Md. L.F. 135 (1972), quoting Prentice-Hall Consumer and Commercial Credit Service (1971).
A. Bingaman, writing in 1975 in 3 Pepperdine Law Review 26 on "The Impact of the Equal Rights Amendment on Married Women’s Financial Individual Rights” furnishes the following description of credit extension practices in states having separate property, as opposed to community property, laws:
If the wife in a separate property jurisdiction is not employed — and over 55 percent of wives are not — she may obtain credit only in one or two ways. In all credit transactions except those with retail merchants, her husband must sign an agreement stating that he will pay any debts she incurs. The credit so obtained will then be not hers, but her husband’s.
The second means of obtaining credit for such wives is used only by retail merchants who, under certain circumstances, will open accounts for the wife alone for the purchase of "necessaries.” Under the common law, and today, the doctrine of "necessaries” supplements the husband’s duty of support by allowing merchants to extend credit to a wife for goods purchased without the consent of a husband and to hold the husband liable for the purchase price. However, because the doctrine is hemmed with legal uncertainties, any individual creditor may justifiably refuse to extend credit under the doctrine, and thereby leave the unemployed wife in a separate property jurisdiction with only one means of obtaining credit — the express agreement of her husband to pay any debts created. For such wives, who are the majority of married women in the United States, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act is hardly a giant step forward. In fact, for them it represents only a small advance in the crucial matter of obtaining equal credit. [Id. at 31 (Footnotes omitted) (Emphasis supplied).]
*551The Federal Equal Credit Opportunity Act accommodates, and thereby acknowledges the present utilization of, state necessaries laws. Title 15 U.S.C. § 1691 (b) (1) provides that it is not discrimination for a creditor "to make an inquiry of marital status if such inquiry is for the purpose of ascertaining the creditor’s rights and remedies applicable to the particular extension of credit and not to discriminate in a determination of credit-worthiness.” It is clear under federal law that a creditor can take a state necessaries law into account, either as a potential liability or as a potential asset, in considering an application for credit, particularly where the application is governed by Regulation B, § 202.5 (c). See Maltz and Miller, The Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Regulation B, 31 Okla. L. Rev. 1, 16-17 (1978).7
More significantly, the Maryland Equal Credit Opportunity Act was enacted after the adoption of the Maryland ERA. Section 12-705 of the Commercial Law Article, in paragraph 5, prohibits any "[r]equest for or consideration of the credit rating of an applicant’s spouse where the applicant is otherwise credit worthy and is not applying for a joint account” unless one of the following three alternatives is met:
1. "[T]h.e applicant lists credit references in the name of the spouse ..or
2. The applicant "has no individual prior credit history”; or
3. "[T]he creditor permits the applicant to designate the applicant’s spouse as an authorized purchaser on the account.”
This paragraph deals exclusively with applications for other than joint accounts. That means that the non-applicant spouse, whose credit may be considered under the three statutory exceptions to the general prohibition, is a spouse who will not be contractually liable for every purchase *552on the account. Thus the first and second exceptions are unmistakably a legislative recognition of the necessaries doctrine. The only purpose for expressly permitting a creditor to obtain information on the credit worthiness of the spouse of an applicant, where the applicant seeks an individual account and the applicant’s spouse is not to be an authorized purchaser, is because the creditor may ultimately realize on the assets of the applicant’s spouse. Inasmuch as the absence of joint liability of the applicant’s spouse is a given, the remedy by which those assets can be reached must be the necessaries doctrine.8
Section 12-705 of the Commercial Law Article manifests that the General Assembly considers the necessaries doctrine to have survived adoption of the ERA. Because the doctrine can only survive the ERA by expansion to a sex neutral form, the legislative policy determination which the majority seeks has already been made.
VI
There are at least two interests involved in this case. One is the interest against a possible retrospective imposition of liability on credit worthy wives whose credit may have been effectively pledged in past transactions if an expanded necessaries rule were in effect. The other is the interest against extinguishing a remedy for support which other courts have concluded should be retained. In my view both of these interests can be harmonized by retention of the necessaries doctrine on an expanded basis, but with the expanded remedy operating prospectively.
Decision of this case need not be predicated on the direct operation of the ERA. But the policy of that constitutional amendment, and the Maryland statutes enacted in the past *553decade, which have made family support obligations mutual and credit opportunities for women equal with men, reflect clearly to me that the common law of necessaries is no longer limited only to a pledge of the husband’s credit.
In this respect, a recognition of the expansion of this common law remedy would be similar to this Court’s determination 14 years ago that the common law rule under which a woman had no legal remedy for loss of consortium was no longer so limited, and that an action, jointly with her husband, could be maintained. Deems v. Western Maryland Ry., 247 Md. 95, 231 A.2d 514 (1967).
I would apply a holding that the necessaries rule is expanded only to transactions entered into after the date of the mandate, see Chevron Oil Co. v. Huson, 404 U.S. 97, 92 S. Ct. 349, 30 L. Ed. 2d 296 (1971), but I would give the Hospital the benefit of the new rule. See Schiller v. Lefkowitz, 242 Md. 461, 466 & n.1, 219 A.2d 378, 380-81 & n.1, cert. denied, 385 U.S. 947, 87 S. Ct. 319, 17 L. Ed. 2d 226 (1966).
Under an expanded necessaries rule, summary judgment for the Hospital was improper. (See Part I). I would reverse and remand.
Judge Davidson has authorized me to state that she concurs in the views expressed in Parts I-IV and VI of this dissenting opinion.

. See Noel v. O’Neill, 128 Md. 202, 206, 97 A. 513, 514 (1916), quoting Jewsbury v. Newbold, 40 Eng. Law and Equity, 518: " 'When goods for which a wife has ordinarily authority to contract on the part of her husband, such as articles of dress, are ordered by her and delivered at his residence, where she also resides, prima facie the husband is liable, there being a presumption of law in favor of the plaintiff (merchant).’ ”
Whether the "presumption” is a presumption, whether it is based on sex, and whether its mutual application because of the ERA would result in an infinite series of presumptions back and forth, are questions which are not presented. The Hospital does not advance the presumption analysis of Noel. It may be that any such "presumption” is exclusively based on the common law duty of the male spouse to support the female. Or, it may be that the "presumption” is merely a permissible inference of actual authority to bind the income earning spouse which may be drawn wherever the evidence shows a homemaker spouse and an income earning spouse reside in the same household and that the homemaker has purchased on credit necessaries for the family.

. Ford v. S. Kann Sons Co., 76 A.2d 358 (Mun. Ct. D.C. 1950). Wife’s desertion defensive to liability based on necessaries doctrine. However, the course of dealing in a retail account maintained in the wife’s name was held to create a jury question as to whether the wife had apparent authority to pledge the husband’s credit.

. Credit application forms prepared by the Federal Reserve Board to illustrate compliance with Regulation B may be found in 5 Cons. Cred. Guide (CCH) ¶ 40, 945 at 68, 303-312.

. As reported in 7 Family L. Rep. 2181 of January 27, 1981.

. It is not totally irrelevant to note that a male may be a "displaced homemaker” under Md. Code (1957, 1979 Repl. Vol.), Art. 88A, § 91 and that a husband may be a “battered spouse” under § 102 of the same article.

. Another consequence of today’s holding is to impair the ability of a financially dependent spouse to obtain needed legal services. This Court has previously held that where the husband died during the pendency of an action for divorce, the wife’s attorney could recover his reasonable fees for representing the wife in the divorce proceedings by an action in assumpsit against the husband’s estate, founded on the theory of necessaries. McCurley v. Stockbridge, 62 Md. 422 (1884). We have also held that an attorney who represented the wife in negotiations looking toward a prop*549erty settlement and separation agreement which did not come to fruition was entitled to recover a reasonable fee for those services in an action based on the necessaries doctrine against the husband. Weiss v. Melnicove, 218 Md. 571, 147 A.2d 763 (1959). That remedy no longer exists.

. The authors note that the creditor can obtain the information to determine the applicability of a necessaries law only indirectly in cases governed by Regulation B, § 202.5 (c), dealing with the individual, unsecured account application.

. The third exception, dealing with use of the account by the spouse, may be viewed as proceeding from a different premise. One rationale for the third exception may be that a non-applicant spouse who makes purchases on the account will be liable directly to the creditor on a quantum meruit basis for the particular purchases made by that individual. Another possible explanation for the third exception is that each such purchase is a separate transaction directly enforceable as an express contract against the user of the account, so that that individual’s credit may be considered.