WILLIAM DONALD SCHAEFER, Governor Ch. 360

CHAPTER 360

(House Bill 38)

AN ACT concerning

Family Law - Liability for Necessaries - Abolition

FOR the purpose of repealing the doctrine of necessaries that
imposes liability on a husband under certain circumstances;
and generally relating to a repeal of the liability of a
husband for necessaries.

BY repealing

Article - Family Law

Section 4-302

Annotated Code of Maryland

(1984 Volume and 1988 Supplement)

Preamble

WHEREAS, The Court of Appeals of Maryland, in the case of
Condore v. Prince George's County, 289 Md. 516 (1981), stated
that the common law doctrine of necessaries - the husband's
liability for the contracts or debts of his wife made for
necessaries for herself or for their children - violates the
Maryland Equal Rights Amendment and is no longer a part of the
common law of the State of Maryland; and

WHEREAS, The Court of Appeals further stated that the

statutory provisions that codify the common law doctrine of

necessaries are also invalid under the Maryland Equal Rights
Amendment; and

WHEREAS, The Court stated that the General Assembly of
Maryland should determine whether to extend the common law
necessaries doctrine to impose liability on wives, or to
eliminate the necessaries doctrine in its entirety; now,
therefore,

SECTION 1. BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF
MARYLAND, That the Laws of Maryland read as follows:

Article - Family Law

[4-302.

(a) As at common law, a husband is liable for any debt or
contract that his wife incurs or enters into:

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