Thorne v. Farrar

Citations

• 57 Wash. 441
• 107 P. 347
• 1910 Wash. LEXIS 772

Syllabus

<p>Marriage — Annulment—Fraud—Statutes. Rem. & Bal. Code, § 7162, authorizing the annulment of a marriage for fraud is merely jurisdictional and refers to the force or fraud of the unwritten law of marriage contracts.</p> <p>Same — Duress—Evidence—Sufficiency. Duress as ground for annulment of a marriage must be shown by clear, satisfactory, and convincing evidence; and the evidence is insufficient where it appears that the plaintiff, a young man 26 years of age, upon demand of an attorney and a police officer, accompanied them to defendant’s home, where he was charged with the paternity of defendant’s unborn child, and threatened by defendant’s mother with a criminal prosecution if he refused to marry; that he then agreed to meet them the next morning to go to another city and marry the defendant, which arrangement was carried out; that he did not see the officer or attorney after the agreement and had ample time before the marriage to consult relatives or an attorney; and that at the trial he exercised his privilege of refusing to answer as to whether he had carnally known the defendant, and was apparently persuaded to marry by the promptings of conscience rather than by threats of prosecution.</p> <p>Sam:e — Duress—Charge of Seduction — Probable Cause. A marriage entered into by a man in order to secure his release from arrest on a charge of seduction will not be annulled on the ground of duress, where the charge was not made maliciously or without probable cause, and he did not aver and prove the falsity of the charge.</p>