Adger v. Ackerman

Citations

• 115 F. 124
• 52 C.C.A. 568
• 1902 U.S. App. LEXIS 4197

Syllabus

<p>1. Marriage — Civil Contract — No Ceremony Required.</p> <p>Marriage is a civil contract. An agreement of one woman and one man, competent to contract, to then become and thereafter be husband and wife during their joint lives, is a valid marriage contract, and no ceremony, civil or religious, is necessary.</p> <p>2. Same — May be Express or Implied.</p> <p>An implied contract of marriage is as binding and effective as one expressed by written or spoken words.</p> <p>8. Same — Implied Contract — Proof of.</p> <p>A marriage may be implied or inferred from cohabitation, general reputation among acquaintances of the parties, their treatment of each other, and their speaking of and addressing each other as husband and wife, the christening of their offspring as their children, the bestowing of the name of the father upon a child of the union, and other acts, sayings, and conduct which have a natural tendency to show the existence of the marriage relation.</p> <p>4. Same — Legal Presumption in Cases of Legitimacy.</p> <p>There is a strong legal presumption that a child is the fruit of a lawful, rather than of a meretricious, union, and that there was a timely marriage between the father and the mother before the birth.</p> <p>5. Same — Common-Law Marriage — Subsequent Ceremonial Marriage.</p> <p>A subsequent ceremonial marriage is not inconsistent with a prior common-law marriage, and does not necessarily overcome the presumption thereof arising from matrimonial cohabitation, repute, the declarations and acts of the parties.,</p> <p>8. Same — Illicit Relation — Presumption of Continuance Easily Overcome.</p> <p>A relation, illicit in its inception, is presumed to continue, in the absence of countervailing evidence. But slight circumstances may be sufficient to establish a change from concubinage to matrimony, and evidence of the time or place of the change is not indispensable to it» proof.</p> <p>7. Same — Presumption of Marriage Arises When Obstacle Removed.</p> <p>