Doertch v. Folwell Eng'g Co.
| Decision Date | 02 December 1930 |
| Docket Number | No. 137.,137. |
| Citation | 252 Mich. 76,233 N.W. 211 |
| Parties | DOERTCH v. FOLWELL ENGINEERING CO. et al. |
| Court | Michigan Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Certiorari to Department of Labor and Industry.
Proceedings under the Workmen's Compensation Act by Minnie Doertch for the death of John Doertch, her husband, claimant, opposed by the Folwell Engineering Company, employer, and the General Accident, Fire & Life Assurance Corporation, Limited, insurance carrier. From an award of compensation by the department of labor and industry, the employer and insurance carrier bring certiorari.
Award affirmed.
Argued before the Entire Bench.Kerr, Lacey & Scroggie, of Detroit, for appellants.
Ballard & Hubbard and Sam Street Hughes, all of Lansing, for appellee.
John Doertch was accidentally killed April 12, 1929, while in the employ of defendant Folwell Engineering Company, at Lansing. The question is whether the department of labor and industry was justified in awarding plaintiff compensation as Doertch's wife.
Plaintiff was married to W. C. McLaughlin in Alabama in 1918, and lived with him until 1924, when he left the state. She said he wrote her from Cincinnati later that he had married again. She has not seen him since. On April 14, 1927, she married Doertch in Alabama, under license and by ceremony, and lived with him in that state until March, 1929, when he came north to Cincinnati and then to Lansing. The evidence justified the department in holding that the separation was temporary, the parties were living together, and she was dependent upon him for support.
The official records at Cincinnati disclosed no divorce proceeding between plaintiff and McLaughlin. No other showing regarding divorce was made. McLaughlin was wholly unaccounted for from the time he left Alabama in 1924, except for the letter from Cincinnati, the date of which was not shown.
The law presumes the validity of a ceremonial marriage. It is said this presumption is one of the strongest known to the law. It is founded, not only on a presumption of innocence of the crime of bigamy on the part of the contracting parties and on the regularity of the acts of licensing and officiating officers, but has a basis in the public policy to foster respectability and to protect offspring from the taint of illegitimacy. In civil actions, the law also presumes that a valid marriage, once shown to exist, continues in force both as to life of the parties, within the statutory seven-year period, and the want of their...
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Detroit Diesel Corp. v. Lane-Smith
...the long-held and well-recognized legal principle that a ceremonial marriage is presumed to be valid. See Doertch v. Folwell Engineering Co., 252 Mich. 76, 78, 233 N.W. 211 (1930); In re Adams' Estate, 362 Mich. 624, 625, 107 N.W.2d 764 (1961). Under Michigan case law, a second marriage onl......
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Roofers Local 149 Pension Fund v. Pack
...was found in the county where the decedent was known to have resided. Durden, 448 F.3d at 925 (citing Doertch v. Folwell Eng'g Co. , 252 Mich. 76, 233 N.W. 211, 211–12 (1930) ). The possibility remains that an absent spouse could have obtained a divorce elsewhere. Durden , 448 F.3d at 926 (......
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French v. State Industrial Accident Commission
... ... the decedent's wife from producing the marriage license ... In Doertch v. Folwell Engineering Co., 252 Mich. 76, ... 233 N.W. 211, in Huff v. Huff, 20 Idaho, ... ...
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Di Giovanni v. Di Giovannantonio
...United States, 127 F.2d 575 (2d Cir., 1942); In re Vargo's Estate, 282 App.Div. 701, 122 N.Y.S.2d 4 (1953); Doertch v. Folwell Engineering Co., 252 Mich. 76, 233 N.W. 211 (1930); Schaffer v. Richardson's Estate, 125 Md. 88, 93 A. 391, L.R.A.1915E, 186 (1915); Turner v. Williams, 202 Mass. 5......