McLaughlin v. McLaughlin

• Decision Date: 07 February 1918
• Docket Number: 6 Div. 682
• Citation: 78 So. 388,201 Ala. 482
• Parties: McLAUGHLIN v. McLAUGHLIN
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

78 So. 388

201 Ala. 482

McLAUGHLIN v. McLAUGHLIN

6 Div. 682

Supreme Court of Alabama

February 7, 1918

Rehearing Denied April 4, 1918

Appeal from Circuit Court, Jefferson County; Hugh A. Locke, Judge.

Bill by J.T. McLaughlin against Annie McLaughlin to annul a marriage. Decree for defendant, and plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

R.J McClure, of Birmingham, for appellant.

William A. Jacobs, of Birmingham, for appellee.

SAYRE J.

By his bill in this cause appellant sought a decree annulling a marriage between himself and appellee which had been solemnized in 1914. Before that, in 1904, the parties had intermarried, but in 1908 appellant obtained a decree of divorce from appellee; and in this cause appellant sought relief from the bonds of his second marriage on the ground that at that time appellee had a lawful husband, other than appellant, with whom she had intermarried subsequently to the divorce aforementioned. Appellant's bill makes no charge of misconduct against appellee subsequent to the last marriage between them, nor does it aver any other statutory ground of divorce. Appellant claimed relief of the character and on the sole ground mentioned above.

The agreed statement of facts shows that:

"In the month of March, 1907, respondent [appellee] went to Georgia with a man by the name of Moore, and about the 25th of March, 1907, without having been divorced from the said J.T. McLaughlin [appellant] was led to believe by the said Moore that if they went into another state and married the marriage would be legal without a divorce, and, being under that belief, she went with the said Moore into the state of Georgia and was, as she thought, on said 25th day of March, 1907, legally married to the said Moore, *** and they thereafter lived together under said marriage in the state of Georgia for two or three years. They then moved into Alabama and so lived together until the year 1913, when they separated, no divorce being granted the respondent; that complainant [[we assume that the agreement here refers to Moore, though he is not a party to this cause] and respondent were known as husband and wife both in the state of Georgia and in the state of Alabama, and two children were born to them while they were living together under said marriage who were called by the name of Moore."

It may be noted that this agreement is hardly the equivalent of an agreement that there was anything like a ceremonial marriage between appellee and Moore; but, conceding that such was the case, the connection thus established between them was nevertheless adulterous and unlawful, nor will the inexorable policy of the law permit it to be considered in any other light. Eldridge v. State, 126 Ala. 63, 28 So. 580.

Further, it may be conceded that if appellee intended, bona fide, to become the lawful wife of Moore and had persisted in that intention and in that apparent relation after app...