HUSBAND. A man who has a wife.
2. As to his obligations. He is bound to receive his wife at his home, and should fur nish her with all the necessaries and conve niences which his fortune enables him to do, and which her situation requires ; but this does not include such luxuries as, according to her fancy, she deems necessaries. See CRUELTY. He is bound to love his wife, and to bear with her faults, and, if possible, by mild means to correct them; and he is re quired to fulfil towards her his marital promise of fidelity, and can, therefore, have no carnal connection with any other woman, without a violation of his obligations. As he is bound to govern his house properly, he is liable for its misgovernment, and he may be punished for keeping a disorderly house even where his wife had the principal agency, and he is liable for her torts, as for her slander or trespass. He is also liable for the wife's debts incurred before coverture, provided they are recovered from him during their joint lives, and, generally, for such as are con tracted by her, after coverture, for necessa ries, or by his authority, express or implied.
See Reeve, Dom. Rel. ; Parsons, Story, Contr.; Hilliard, Torts.
3. Of his rights. Being the head of the family, the husband has a right to establish himself wherever he may please, and in this he cannot be controlled by his wife ; he may manage his affairs in his own way, buy and sell all kinds of personal property, without her control, and he may buy any real estate he may deem proper, but, as the wife acquires a right in the latter, he cannot sell it, discharged of her dower, except by her consent, expressed in the manner prescribed by the laws of the state where such lands lie. At common law, all her personal property in possession is vested in him, and he may dispose of it as if he had acquired it by his own contract: this arises from the principle that they are con sidered one person in law, 2 Blackstone, Comm. 433; and he is entitled to all her pro perty in action, provided be reduces it to possession during her life. Id. 434. He is
also entitled to her chattels real, but these vest in him not absolutely, but sub modo : as, in the case of a lease for years, the husband is entitled to receive the rents and profits of it, and may, if he pleases, sell, surrender, or dispose of it during the coverture, and it is liable to be taken in execution for his debts; and, if he survives her, it is to all intents and purposes his own. In case his wife survives him, it is considered as if it had never been transferred from her, and it belongs to her alone. In his wife's freehold estate he has a life estate during the joint lives of himself and wife ; and at common law, when he has a child by her who could inherit, he has an estate by the curtesy. But the rights of a husband over the wife's property, are very much abridged in some of the United States, by statutes, See MARRIED WOMAN.
4. One of the most striking differences between the law of Louisiana and of the other states of the Union, where the common law prevails, is with re gard to the relation between husband and wife. By the common law, husband and wife are con sidered as one person, in the language of Black stone " The very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during marriage, or, at least, is incorporated or consolidated into that of the husband." By the law of Louisiana, no such con sequences flow from marriage ; the parties continue to he two distinct persons, whose rights of property arc not necessarily affected by the relation in which they stand to each other. When the marriage is not preceded by a marriage contract, all the pro perty, whether movable or immovable, which the parties hold, continues to belong to them, as their separate estate. But, so far us future acquisitions are concerned, the law creates a community of neglects or gains between the husband and wife during marriage ; and the property thus acquired is called common property.