Craig's Estate

Citations

• 273 Pa. 530
• 117 A. 221
• 1922 Pa. LEXIS 610

Syllabus

<p>Husband and wife — Marriage—Evidence—Contract—Reputation —Cohabitation — Meretricious relation — Presumption— Child — Claim against father’s estate — Burden of proof.</p> <p>1. Marriage is a civil contract, and does not require a particular form of solemnization by church or state officials to make it valid.</p> <p>2. As a contract, however, it must be evidenced by words in the present tense uttered with a view to establish the relation of husband and wife, and should be proved by the signature of the parties, if in writing, or by witnesses who were present when the contract was made.</p> <p>3. If such evidence is not available the marriage may be established by proof of reputation and cohabitation, declarations and conduct of the parties and such other circumstances as usually accompany the marriage relation.</p> <p>4. Neither cohabitation nor reputation alone is sufficient. Both must coexist when there is no proof of actual marriage, and together they are evidence from which a presumption of marriage arises which, presumption is always open to rebuttal by proof that no marriage had, in fact, taken place.</p> <p>5. A man may live with his kept mistress in such a way as to create a kind of reputation of marriage among some persons; he may even allow himself to be held out to her friends and acquaintances as her husband, may recognize her children as his, and yet the evidence may fall short of that which ought to satisfy the mind that there was an actual agreement to form the lawful relation-of husband and wife.</p> <p>6. The conduct of the parties must be such that almost any one acquainted with them would naturally infer that they bore the relation to each other of husband and wife.</p> <p>7. While a man may recognize the parentage of a child, yet, if such child after the father’s death claims a share in his estate, the burden is on the claimant to prove a valid marriage existing between the parents.</p> <p>8. In the present case the evidence was held insufficie