Bouic v. Maught

Alvey, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This action was brought by the appellee to recover of the appellant for services and attention rendered to the appellant’s testatrix in her life-time, as nurse. It appears that the testatrix was an invalid for several years immediately preceding her death, and part of the time quite helpless, being dependent upon the assistance of others for all her movements. She was an unmarried lady, and she boarded with her sister, the mother of the appellee, from the year 1866 to the time of her death in January, 1891.

The appellee had, prior to 1886, lived with relations of hers in Frederick County, but in the last mentioned year she returned to her mother’s home in Montgomery County, and there finding her aunt sick and needing special care and attention, she became her nurse and assistant; and her claim for such services, at the rates charged in the bill of particulars, amounted to $1,368; and she recovered to the extent of $1,050. The defences interposed were, never promised or never indebted as alleged, payment, and the bar of the Statute of Limitations. The case is jmesented here upon the rulings of the Court below with respect to the prayers of the respective parties offered for instructions to the jury. The case appears to have been fully and fairly submitted to the jury, by whom all the facts of the case have been considered, and a conclusion drawn therefrom in ⁴⁴⁴ favor of the appellee.

We are not called upon or authorized to review the facts of the case, farther than to see that there was evidence upon which prayers could he based. We can only determine whether the rulings upon the prayers, presenting propositions of law; are correct or not, when examined in reference to the evidence before the jury. If the work and services rendered were merely gratuitous, and performed for the testatrix with no view of compensation therefor, of course, there could he no legal demand, and no right to recover for such services. But, in the absence of an express contract, the relation of the parties in this case does not repel an implied contract to pay for valuable services rendered to and accepted by the testatrix, if it he not affirmatively shown that such services were intended to he gratuitous.

It is not to he inferred, simply from the relation that existed in this case between the parties, that the services were intended to he gratuitous, and were rendered with no view of compensation. Nor is there any evidence in the case to show that the contract for hoarding in the house of the mother of the appellee, included the compensation to a nurse to the invalid hoarder, who required special and particular care and attention in her infirm and dependent condition of health. The question of the implied obligation to pay for the services rendered depended entirely upon the consideration of all the circumstances of the case. The two prayers offered by the appellee were’granted, and we think there was no substantial error in this