Bridges v. Bridges, 45054

• Decision Date: 16 December 1968
• Docket Number: No. 45054,45054
• Citation: 217 So.2d 281
• Parties: Mrs. Edith Meaders BRIDGES v. William Parham BRIDGES, Jr.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 281

217 So.2d 281

Mrs. Edith Meaders BRIDGES v. William Parham BRIDGES, Jr.

No. 45054.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

Dec. 16, 1968.

Rehearing Denied Jan. 15, 1969.

O. B. Triplett, Jr., Forest, Bernard W. N. Chill, Jackson, for appellant.

John R. Countiss, III, W. E. Gore, Jr., Jackson, for appellee.

GILLESPIE, Presiding Justice:

The question in this case is a novel one in this jurisdiction. It is: Where a wife who is drawing alimony from her divorced husband enters into a second marriage which is voidable because of fraud, and the second marriage is annulled, may she draw alimony from the first husband after the annulment of the second marriage? We hold that she may not; when she entered into the second marriage she made an election as to whom she would look for support.

On October 14, 1963, Mrs. Edith Meadows Bridges, hereinafter called appellant, was divorced from William Parham Bridges, Jr., by decree of the Chancery Court of Hinds County, Mississippi. She was awarded the permanent custody of two children, together with child support and alimony. On May 14, 1965, appellant entered into a ceremonial marriage with one Russell E. Ferrell in Hinds County, Mississippi, and moved with him to Texas. The marriage to Ferrell was annulled on June 22, 1965, by a decree of the District Court of Harris County, Texas, on the ground that the marriage was entered into by the appellant under false and fraudulent representations on the part of Ferrell. The decree in that case recited that the purported marriage between the parties 'was dissolved, annulled, set aside, and held for naught, because said marriage was entered into by plaintiff under false and fraudulent representations on the part of defendant.'

In her suit for annulment in the Texas court appellant charged that Ferrell falsely represented (1) that he had a home in Texas where he and appellant would live, (2) that he would do certain things for appellant's children, (3) his income and his ability to provide a high standard of living. She charged that but for these false representations she would not have married Ferrell and was therefore defrauded into marrying him. She also charged that Ferrell married in violation of a Texas statute that prevented him from remarrying after his former divorce until a certain date.

Under the laws of Texas there is no provision for alimony in the event a marriage is annulled. We are of the opinion that the marriage of appellant to Ferrell was voidable rather than void.

After the divorce of appellant and William Parham Bridges, Jr., Bridges remarried and has since had a child by his second marriage. This occurred long prior to appellant's ceremonial marriage to Ferrell. Bridges was at the time of his divorce from appellant on Oct. 14, 1963, a man of considerable wealth and his wealth has increased each year since his divorce from appellant.

On February 24, 1966, William Parham Bridges, Jr., filed a petition in the Chancery Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County, Mississippi, seeking a modification of the divorce decree between Bridges and appellant dated October 14, 1963. He contended that the remarriage of appellant to Ferrell on May 14, 1965, was such a change of circumstances that he was forever thereafter relieved of any obligation to pay appellant alimony. In answer to this petition, appellant alleged that her marriage to Ferrell had been annulled as above stated, and charged that she had been inadequately represented in her original suit against Bridges for a divorce that resulted in the decree of October 14, 1963, and that she should continue to be able to draw alimony notwithstanding the pretended marriage to Ferrell. There were certain other aspects of her counter-petition with reference to child support which are not here at issue.

The Court has carefully considered cases from other jurisdictions on the question involved in this case.

In the case of Sleicher v. Sleicher, 251 N.Y. 366, 167 N.E. 501 (1929), the parties were married in New York and divorced in Nevada, the decree of divorce providing for alimony. The divorced wife subsequently went through a marriage ceremony which was later annulled on the grounds of fraud. The divorced wife then brought an action against the former husband contending that her right to receive alimony under the divorce decree was revived upon the annulment of her marriage. It was held that upon the annulment being granted, the rights of the divorced wife were revived as to alimony under the divorce decree.

In the case of Gaines v. Jacobsen, 308 N.Y. 218, 124 N.E.2d 290, 48 A.L.R.2d 312 (1954), the New York court held that where the divorced wife could sue for support in her action for annulment of the subsequent marriage, the first husband was relieved of any duty to support her.

In Cecil v. Cecil, 11 Utah 2d 155, 356 P.2d 279 (1960), where the wife's purported second marriage had been annulled because she was adjudged to have had insufficient mental capacity to enter into such purported marriage, the court held that the first husband was not entitled to modification of a divorce decree requiring him to pay alimony.

In the case of Robbins v. Robbins, 343 Mass. 247, 178 N.E.2d 281 (1961), the wife was granted an...