Also known as: baron and feme · baron et femme · husband and wife · coverture
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
The common-law doctrine under which a husband and wife are regarded as one legal person.
Boubacar Bah and Brooke Bryant received a deed granting land to them as husband and wife along with their issue who enter a designated profession. A creditor later obtained a judgment against Boubacar alone. The court held the land unreachable because the conveyance satisfied the conditions for an estate held by the spouses as one legal unit.
Brandon Black discussed a business plan with his wife Brooke Bryant in their bedroom. Prosecutors later subpoenaed Brooke to reveal the details. The court refused to compel disclosure because the conversations occurred under the protection afforded to the single marital unit.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Brian Bailey and his wife Bella conveyed property to themselves and their surviving children as a designated class. A separate creditor of Brian sought to attach the land after judgment. The court denied the attachment because the spouses held the estate as one legal person under the governing conveyance rules.
Bruce Baldwin and his wife Brooke signed a clinic form stating that frozen embryos remained their personal property. A later research contract attempted to reclassify the embryos. The court enforced the original form because the couple acted as one legal person when they executed the controlling agreement.
Bradley Banks and his wife agreed with a surrogate to carry their genetic child. After birth the surrogate sought to retain parental rights. The court recognized the couple as the legal parents because their marital unity established the intent that controlled parentage.
Bayside Shipping sold a home to a married couple under a restrictive covenant that limited ownership based on race. The buyers challenged the covenant after purchase. The court struck the restriction because the couple's status as one legal unit triggered constitutional protections against enforcement.
At common law the doctrine treats husband and wife as one legal person. Therefore they cannot supply the two distinct actors required to form a conspiracy.
The doctrine supplies the legal unity that permits a conveyance to husband and wife plus their issue to create a tenancy by the entirety when the jurisdiction recognizes that estate.
The doctrine reinforces the presumption that communications between spouses are confidential. The government must overcome that presumption to compel disclosure.
When a cryopreservation agreement refers to embryos as the property of the couple the doctrine supports treating the spouses as a single unit whose contract rights control disposition.
…(DOMA), 110 Stat. 2419, defining marriage for all federal-law purposes as “only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife.” 1 U.S.C. §7. The new and widespread discussion of the subject led other States to a different conclusion. In 2003, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts held the State’s…