Hebblethwaite v. Hepworth

Citations

• 98 Ill. 126
• 1881 Ill. LEXIS 232

Syllabus

<p>1. Mabbtaoe—who may contract marriage, and what constitutes that relation. Persons having a husband or wife living are not competent to contract marriage, and no presumption of a marriage can he indulged from cohabitation hy such persons.</p> <p>2. The statute does not prohibit or declare void a marriage not solemnized in accordance with its provisions. A marriage without observing the statutory regulations, if made according to the common law, will be good.</p> <p>8. By the common law, if the contract be made per verba de presentí, it is sufficient evidence of marriage, or if made per verba de futuro cum copula, the copula mill be presumed to have been allowed on the faith of the marriage promise, if at the time of the copula the parties accepted each other as husband and wife. It is the consent of the parties, and not the concubinage, that constitutes valid marriage.</p> <p>4. A contract of marriage per verba de futuro, while it may give an action, is not evidence of valid marriage; nor are the relations of the parties changed by the fact that cohabitation may have followed the promise to marry at a future time. A contract of marriage in the future, even when the parties may afterwards cohabit, is not understood to constitute marriage, unless the parties at the time.of the cohabitation accept each other as husband and wife, and so conduct themselves that that relation is understood and acquiesced in by relatives and other acquaintances.</p>