CASE BRIEF: State v. Rhodes, 1866 WL 1278 (N.C. 1868).

CASE: State v. Rhodes, 1866 WL 1278 (N.C. 1868).

FACTS: The defendant was indicated for  assault and battery upon his wife Elizabeth Rogers.  He struck his wife “three licks, with a switch about the size of one of his finders (but not as large as a man’s thumb.”  The lower courts found for the defendant since “he has the right to whip his wife with a switch no larger than his thumb.”  The State appealed.  

ISSUE: Whether the defendant is guilty of  assault and battery upon his wife?

HOLDING: No, the Court will look at the effects produced by the assault and not the manner of producing it, or the instrument used.

RULE: The Court will not interfere with family government in trifling cases and expose private affairs of couples.  

ANALYSIS: The Court ruled that family government is a “law as complete in itself as the State government.”  The condition of the wife has to produce inflicted or threatened permanent or malicious injury or if the condition of the party is intolerable.  Making public the private affairs of couples would be a greater evil than stopping the “temper, quarrels, and even personal conflict” between couples.