Untitled

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5638, 25 April 1879, Page 5

An important decision (says the Melbourne Age of a recent date), was given by the full Court, on the power of a wife to pledge the credit of her husband, and it has caused some surprise and criticism in legal circles. The case before the Court was that of Stevens v. Sloan, an appeal from an order of. the Wangaratta justices directing the appellant to pay £8 odd, the price of goods sold and delivered to his wife. The defendant alleged that he had stopped his wife’s credit, or at least told her not to, buy any more things in his name. This revocation of her implied authority was not, however, known to the storekeeper. The Court held that, in order torput an end to the wife’s implied agency,- it was not necessary the revocation should be known to the public. The judgment of the- Court was based on the celebrated case of Jolly y. Rees, decided in the Court of Common Pleas, in which it was held that the onus of proving agency of the wife rested on the storekeeper who sold her goods on credit.