Howard v. Kelly

Citations

• 111 Miss. 285
• 71 So. 391

Syllabus

<p>1. Marriage. Ceremonial marriage. Presumption of validity. Burden of proof. Common law marriage. Meretricious relationship. Death. Widows action for death. Bight to proceeds.</p> <p>Where a husband contracts a second ceremonial marriage that is one “solemnized according to the forms of law,” every presumption will be indulged in favor of its validity and this presumption would overcome the presumption of the law that his first wife was still living although she had not been absent seven years at the time of the second marriage.</p> <p>2. Same.</p> <p>Where a second marriage, duly solemnized, is shown the presumption arises that the first spouse has either been divorced or is dead, and, the burden of proof is upon him who -claims rights inconsistent with such presumption.</p> <p>3. Same.</p> <p>Since prior to the adoption of the Code of 1892, common law marriages were recognized as lawful and binding as one contracted in pursuance of a license and the usual ceremony, every presumption should then be indulged in favor of the legality of a union thus shown in the same way and to the same extent as the law indulges in favor of a ceremonial marriage.</p> <p>4. Common Law Marriages. Meretricious relationship. Presumption.</p> <p>Where meretricious relationship is once shown to exist between a man and woman, it is presumed to have continued until this cohabitation changed from an unlawful to a lawful relationship- or in other words until the cohabitation became, in the eyes of the law, matrimonial.</p> <p>5. Common Law Marriage. Meretricious relationship.</p> <p>Where a man and woman were living in adultery previous to the Code of 1892, it may be shown that they contracted a common law marriage by proof that the unlawful manner of their cohabitation was changed, by the public announcement of the parties that they were man and wife and the assumption of all the bur- ' • dens incident to matrimony, especially the burdens of maintaining a home and of bearing and caring for