Inkpen v. Lehigh Const. Co.

• Decision Date: 02 December 1960
• Citation: 12 A.D.2d 692,207 N.Y.S.2d 700
• Parties: Claim of Frances INKPEN, Respondent, v. LEHIGH CONSTRUCTION CO., Inc., and Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, Appellants. Workmen's Compensation Board, Respondent.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

Page 700

207 N.Y.S.2d 700

12 A.D.2d 692

Claim of Frances INKPEN, Respondent, v. LEHIGH CONSTRUCTION CO., Inc., and Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, Appellants. Workmen's Compensation Board, Respondent.

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department.

Dec. 2, 1960.

Albert P. Thill, Brooklyn, for appellants.

Howard Schulman, New York City, for claimant-respondent.

Louis J. Lefkowitz, Atty. Gen., for Workmen's Compensation Board (Roy Wiedersum and Harry Rackow, Asst. Attys. Gen., of counsel).

Before BERGAN, P. J., and COON, GIBSON, HERLIHY and REYNOLDS, JJ.

MEMORANDUM DECISION.

Appeal from a decision and award of the Workmen's Compensation Board.

Claimant's right to an award of compensation as the widow of the decedent employee depends on the validity of a Mexican divorce obtained by the decedent against his first wife. This is not an attack upon the validity of the divorce by the first wife claiming compensation; it is an attack by the employer and insurance carriers, strangers to the marital relation. After the Mexican court had granted the divorce, the decedent and this claimant married in Connecticut in a ceremonial marriage before a judicial officer. A presumption of regularity attaches to this marriage, and a party attacking it has the burden of proving its invalidity. No such proof was offered by appellants in this case. They offered merely the judgment of the Mexican court. On its face this judgment recites the jurisdiction of the court; the manner in which it obtained jurisdiction; and the relief it granted. No proof suggestive of invalidity has...