In 1993, Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center sued Kenneth Connor and his wife, Barbara, for payment of medical services the hospital rendered to Kenneth. The trial court dismissed the hospital''s complaint against Mrs. Connor, ruling that she had not executed an agreement to pay for the services. At the same time, the court declined to expand the doctrine of necessaries to hold the wife responsible for her husband''s medical bills. (The common law doctrine of necessaries holds that a husband is liable to a third party for any necessaries the third party provided the wife.) The district court of appeal reversed. In the instant action, Mrs. Connor contended that the doctrine of necessaries was contingent on the legal condition of coverture, in which a married woman''s legal identity merged with that of her husband. With the removal of coverture, Mrs. Connor argued, wives are now freely able to enter into contracts and obtain their own necessaries, thus obviating the doctrine of necessaries. Southwest agreed that the initial reason for the doctrine has disappeared, but maintained that it now serves the function of promoting the partnership theory of marriage and should be expanded so that both men and women are liable to creditors who provide necessaries to their respective spouses.
The court rules that because constitutional demands for equality between the sexes require that a husband can no longer be held liable for his wife''s necessaries, it follows that a wife should not be held liable for her husband''s necessaries. The court therefore abrogates the common law doctrine of necessaries and leaves it to the legislature to determine the state''s policy in this area. "We do not make a judgment as to which is the better policy for the state to adopt," the court adds.
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