M'Ginty and Another v. M'Alpine

Subject_1 Husband and Wife Subject_2 Wife's Separate Estate Subject_3 Earnings of Wife in Business Subject_4 Married Women's Property Act 1877 (40 and 41 Vict. cap. 29), sec. 3. Facts: Section 3 of the Married Women's Property Act 1877 excludes the jus mariti and right of administration of the husband from the wages and earnings of every married woman, acquired by her after 1st January 1878, “in any employment, occupation, or trade in which she is engaged, or in any business which she carries on under her own name.”

A man married a woman who had for some time carried on the business of fish-hawking. After the marriage the husband gave up the business of carting which he had previously carried on, and took to the business of fish-hawking, and by request of both spouses the dealers who had previously supplied the woman charged their accounts to the husband's name. The two carts used in the business both Page: 826 ↓

Held that the business was the husband's, and that the wife did not thereby earn any separate estate.

Opinion by the Lord President that in order to get the benefit of the above section the wife must have some other “employer” than the husband, or the “occupation or trade” in which she is engaged must not be simply the occupation or trade of the husband.

Opinion by Lord Adam that the first branch of the above section refers to wages earned by a wife in an employment, occupation, or trade in which she is engaged as the servant of another person; and the second branch to the earnings of a wife in any business which she carries on under her own name.