Chrismond v. Chrismond, 37948

Decision Date21 May 1951
Docket NumberNo. 37948,37948
PartiesCHRISMOND v. CHRISMOND.
CourtMississippi Supreme Court

J. Wesley Miller, Rolling Fork, Barnett, Jones & Montgomery, Jackson, for appellant.

Butler, Snow & O'Mara, Jackson, John B. Gee, Rolling Fork, for appellee.

KYLE, Justice.

This is an appeal by Lon Chrismond, defendant in the court below, from a decree of the chancery court of Sharkey County in favor of Mrs. Mable Chrismond, complainant, annulling the bonds of matrimony created by two purported marriages of the complainant and the defendant, and granting to the complainant an absolute divorce from the defendant, and awarding to the complainant certain real property as her equitable share of the property accumulated by the joint efforts of the parties during their relationship before and after the purported marriages.

The complainant in her bill of complaint alleged that the complainant and the defendant were married in Lake Village, Arkansas, on November 15, 1942 (the proof shows August 27, 1943 or 1945), and thereafter lived together as husband and wife in Sharkey County, Mississippi, until approximately 30 days before the filing of the bill of complaint; that through their joint efforts and savings they accumulated a substantial amount of property, which consisted of farm lands and other real property situated in Sharkey County; that the defendant a short time before their separation began to mistreat the complainant, and to curse and use abusive language toward the complainant, and threatened to strike her, and that the defendant finally stated to the complainant that he had a living wife undivorced; and that the complainant thereafter left the defendant and since that time had lived apart from him. The complaint in her bill of complaint asked that the bonds of matrimony be annulled and that she be granted a divorce from the defendant, and the complainant also asked for a partition of the property that had been accumulated through their joint efforts during the time they had lived together, or for alimony which should constitute a lien upon the property.

The defendant in his answer denied that he and the complainant were married according to law in Lake Village, Arkansas, as alleged in the bill of complaint. The defendant alleged in his answer that he had met the complainant sometime during the year 1939; that the complainant at that time was married to one John Lowery and was the mother of a child named Faye Lowery; that John Lowery had separated from the complainant, and that the complainant requested employment by the defendant as housekeeper and that he had employed her as such; that she moved into his house under that arrangement and worked for him, keeping house for him and at times driving his automobile while he was on the road engaged in his business of selling cakes, cookies and other confections; that the defendant at that time was married to Clara Bell Simpson Chrismond, who was living apart from the defendant, in Bogalusa, Louisiana. The defendant further stated that it was understood by the complainant and the defendant at that time that both parties were married and that neither of them had obtained a divorce; that sometime during the year 1945 the complainant obtained a 90-day divorce from her husband, John Lowery, in the State of Arkansas, and that soon thereafter the complainant and the defendant obtained a marriage license and were married at Lake Village, Arkansas; that the complainant's husband, John Lowery, obtained a divorce from the complainant in Leake County, Mississippi, in 1948, and that the complainant and defendant thereafter obtained another marriage license in Sunflower County and were remarried in that county. The defendant admitted in his answer that at that time he had not been divorced from his former wife who lived in Bogalusa, Louisiana.

The defendant denied that the property that he owned had been accumulated as a result of the joint efforts of the complainant and the defendant, and he denied the charge of cruel and inhuman treatment contained in the bill of complaint; and the defendant asked that the bill of complaint be dismissed.

The proof showed that the complainant had been married to John Lowery at Carthage in Leake County in 1928, and that she and her husband had lived together in Leake County until about 1935 when they moved to Sharkey County; and that they were living in Sharkey County when they separated a year or two later; that about 1941 the complainant moved into the home of the defendant in Sharkey County where she continued to live until the date of their separation in 1949; that sometime after moving into the home of the defendant the complainant obtained a 90-day divorce in the City of Little Rock, Arkansas, and that the complainant and the defendant were married at Lake Village, Arkansas, on August 27, 1943 or 1945. The proof showed that the complainant's former husband, John Lowery, obtained a divorce from the complainant in 1948, and that the complainant and the defendant were remarried in Sunflower County, Mississippi, on February 14, 1948. The defendant during all of this time had a wife living in Bogalusa, Louisiana, from whom he had not been divorced.

The proof showed that the complainant during the eight or nine years that she and the defendant lived together cooked the meals for the family and attended to all of her household duties and ministered to the personal needs of the defendant, who was a cripple and unable to walk except with the aid of crutches. The defendant was engaged in the business of a transient vendor of cakes, candies, cookies and other confections, which he sold on consignments along the routes which he travelled over the county. The two worked together much of the time; and succeeded in making the business a profitable business. The complainant testified that they wanted to build up the business and to accumulate property, that they worked seven days in each week, and that it was through their joint efforts that they succeeded in accumulating the property which the defendant owned at the time of the filing of the bill of complaint. The defendant admitted that the complainant helped him carry on his peddling business during much of the time that they lived together. The proof showed that at the time of the filing of the bill of complaint the defendant was the owner of farm land and other real property of the value of approximately $40,000, and that the property was encumbered by mortgage deeds of trust in the amount of approximately $12,500.

The chancellor found that the property owned by the defendant at the time of the filing of the bill of complaint, with the exception of the Onward Plantation, had been acquired through the joint efforts of the complainant and the defendant during the time they lived together. The chancellor found that the marriage of the complainant and the defendant in Arkansas in 1945 and the marriage in Mississippi in 1948 were both void marriages, because the defendant at the time of each of said marriages had not been divorced from his former wife who was living in Bogalusa, Louisiana. The chancellor stated that the evidence failed to show that the defendant ever at any time advised the complainant that he had not been divorced from his former wife; and the chancellor stated that whether the complainant's Arkansas divorce was valid or invalid (and he did not deem it necessary to pass upon that question), the complainant had been led to believe that it was valid and that she had a right to marry after obtaining the Arkansas divorce. The chancellor found that the complainant at the time of her second marriage to the defendant had not been advised by the defendant that he had never been divorced from his first wife; and the chancellor found that the complainant entered into the two marriages with the defendant in good faith.

The chancellor held that the parties had never been lawfully married, and that under the decisions of this Court alimony could not be granted to the complainant. The chancellor held, however, that the defendant's ceremonial marriages to the complainant in Arkansas and in Mississippi raised the presumption that the defendant had been divorced from his former wife, and that the defendant should not be permitted to come into a court of equity and set up his former marriage to defeat a recovery by the complainant in a suit of this kind, after he had entered into the two marriages with the complainant knowing that he had not been divorced from his former wife.

The chancellor entered a decree annulling the bonds of matrimony created by the marriages of the complainant and the defendant to each other and granting to the complainant an absolute divorce; and the chancellor in the decree ordered that the homestead property, situated in the Town of...

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32 cases
  • Ferguson v. Ferguson, 92-CA-00058
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Mississippi
    • July 7, 1994
    ...proceeding." Jones v. Jones, 532 So.2d 574, 580 (Miss.1988) (citing Watts v. Watts, 466 So.2d 889 (Miss.1985); Chrismond v. Chrismond, 211 Miss. 746, 52 So.2d 624 (1951)). See also Brendel v. Brendel, 566 So.2d 1269, 1273 (Miss.1990), where this court affirmed the lower court's decision ord......
  • Williams v. Mason, 07-58847
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Mississippi
    • February 7, 1990
    ...at law. Pickens v. Pickens, 490 So.2d 872, 875-76 (Miss.1986); Taylor v. Taylor, 317 So.2d 422, 423 (Miss.1975); Chrismond v. Chrismond, 211 Miss. 746, 52 So.2d 624, 629 (1951). B. The Chancery Court held itself precluded from considering anything beyond Mason's claim for specific performan......
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    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Mississippi
    • August 4, 1994
    ...him to award an equitable interest in such jointly accumulated property. Jones, 532 So.2d at 580 (citing Chrismond v. Chrismond, 211 Miss. 746, 756-58, 52 So.2d 624, 628-29 (1951), cert. den., 342 U.S. 878, 72 S.Ct. 167, 96 L.Ed. 659 (1951)); Watts, 466 So.2d at 890-91. The chancellor's aut......
  • Cates v. Swain
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    • Court of Appeals of Mississippi
    • August 14, 2012
    ...of “putative wives”—women who had ceremonially married but did not, in fact, have a legally valid marriage. See Chrismond v. Chrismond, 211 Miss. 746, 52 So.2d 624 (1951) and Taylor v. Taylor, 317 So.2d 422 (Miss.1975). In Estate of Alexander, the supreme acknowledged the “putative spouse” ......
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