MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS.
[Sidenote: Action for damages under prohibitory liquor law.]
Every wife, child, parent, guardian, employer or other person who shall
be injured in person or property or means of support, by any
intoxicated person, or in consequence of the intoxication habitual or
otherwise, of any person, shall have a right of action in his or her
name, against any person, who shall, by selling intoxicating liquors,
cause the intoxication of such person, for all damages actually
sustained, as well as exemplary damages; and a married woman shall have
the same right to bring suits, prosecute and control the same, and the
amount recovered, as if a single woman, and all damages recovered by a
minor under this action, shall be paid to such minor, or his parent,
guardian, or next friend, as the court shall direct, and all suits for
damages under this section shall be by civil action in any court having
jurisdiction thereof. [§2418.] Under this section a woman is entitled to
recover for the death of her husband, or for personal injuries to him,
or to herself caused by intoxication. She may recover damages for mental
anguish, shame, or suffering, resulting from injuries to the person, and
for injuries to, or loss of property, and means of support.
[Sidenote: Parties in action for seduction.]
An unmarried female may prosecute as plaintiff, an action for her own
seduction and recover such damages as may be found in her favor.
[§3760.] In a civil action for damages it is not necessary that an
unmarried woman be of previously chaste character to enable her to
recover for loss of health, physical suffering, etc., but without that
she cannot recover for loss of character.
[Sidenote: For injury or death of minor child.]
A father, or in case of his death, or imprisonment, or desertion of his
family, the mother may prosecute as plaintiff, an action for the
expenses and actual loss of service resulting from the injury or death
of a minor child. [§3761.]
[Sidenote: Married women]
A married woman may, in all cases, sue and be sued without joining her
husband with her, to the same extent as if she were unmarried, and an
attachment or judgment in such action shall be enforced by or against
her as if she were a single woman. [§3667.]
[Sidenote: Defense.]
If husband or wife are sued together, the wife may defend for her own
right; and if either neglect to defend, the other may defend for that
one also. [§3768.]
[Sidenote: When husband or wife deserts family.]
When a husband has deserted his family, the wife may prosecute or defend
in his name any action which he might have prosecuted or defended, and
shall have the same powers and rights therein as he might have had; and
under like circumstances the same right shall apply to the husband upon
the desertion of the wife. [§3769.]
[Sidenote: Evidence. Husband and wife.]
Neither the husband nor wife shall in any case, be a witness against the
other, except in a criminal prosecution for a crime committed one
against the other, or in a civil action or proceeding one against the
other; but they may in all civil and criminal cases, be witness for each
other. [§4891.] In prosecutions for adultery or bigamy the husband or
wife, as the case may be, is a competent witness against the other.
[Sidenote: Communications between husband and wife.]
Neither husband nor wife can be examined in any case as to any
communication made by one to the other while married, nor shall they
after the marriage relation ceases, be permitted to reveal in testimony
any such communication made while the marriage subsisted. [§4892.]
[Sidenote: Women eligible to office.]
Women are eligible to all school offices in the state, including those
of county superintendent and school director. [§§2828, 2829.]
No person shall be disqualified for holding the office of county
recorder on account of sex. [§471.]
[Sidenote: Police matrons.]
Mayors of all cities having a population of twenty-five thousand or
more, are authorized, by act of the Twenty-fifth General Assembly to
appoint police matrons to take charge of all women and children confined
at police stations. They are to search the persons of such women and
children, accompany them to court, and "give them such comfort as may be
in their power." No woman is eligible to this office who is under thirty
years of age. She must be of good moral character, and sound physical
health. Her application must be endorsed by at least ten women of good
standing and residents of the city in which such appointment is made.
When appointed she shall hold office until removed by death, resignation
or discharge, but she can be dismissed only after charges have been made
against her conduct and such charges have been investigated. She has the
right to enter work houses where women are confined, at all times. She
shall be subject to the board of police or to the chief of police. Her
salary shall not be less than the minimum paid to patrolmen.
[Sidenote: Right of suffrage.]
In any election hereafter held in any city, incorporated town, or school
district, for the purpose of issuing any bonds for municipal or school
purposes, or for the purpose of borrowing money, or for the purpose of
increasing the tax levy, the right of any citizen to vote shall not be
denied or abridged on account of sex, and women may vote at such
elections, the same as men, under the same qualifications and
restrictions. [Act of the Twenty-fifth General Assembly.]