from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
CONFUSION OF RIGHTS, contracts. When the qualities of debtor and creditor
are united in the same person, there arises a confusion of rights, which
extinguishes the two credits; for instance, when a woman obliges marries the
obligor, the debt is extinguished. 1 Salk. 306; Cro. Car. 551; 1 Ld. Raym.
515; Ca. Ch. 21, 117. There is, however, an excepted case in relation to a
bond given by the husband to the wife; when it is given to the intended wife
for a provision to take effect after his death. 1 Ld. Raym. 515; 5 T. R.
381; Hut. 17 Hob. 216; Cro. Car. 376; 1 Salk. 326 Palm. 99; Carth. 512; Com.
Dig. Baron & Feme, D. A further exception is the case of a divorce. If one
be bound in an obligation to a feme sole and then marry her, and afterwards
they are divorced, she may sue her former husband on the obligation,
notwithstanding, her action was in suspense during the marriage. 26 H. VIII.
1.
2. Where a person possessed of an estate, becomes in a different right
entitled to a charge upon the estate; the charge is in general merged in the
estate, and does not revive in favor of the personal representative against
the heir; there are particular exceptions, as where the person in whom the
interests unite is a minor, and can therefore dispose of the personalty, but
not of the estate; but in the case of a lunatic the merger and confusion was
ruled to have taken place. 2 Ves. jun. 261. See Louis. Code, art. 801 to
808; 2 Ld. R. 527; 3 L. R. 552 4 L. R. 399, 488. Burge on Sur. Book 2, c.
11, p. 253.