Riddle v. Riddle

• Decision Date: 14 July 1903
• Docket Number: 1451
• Citation: 72 P. 1081,26 Utah 268
• Court: Utah Supreme Court
• Parties: MARY CAROLINE RIDDLE, Respondent, v. ISAAC RIDDLE, Appellant

72 P. 1081

26 Utah 268

MARY CAROLINE RIDDLE, Respondent, v. ISAAC RIDDLE, Appellant

No. 1451

Supreme Court of Utah

July 14, 1903

Appeal from the Fourth District Court, Utah County.--Hon. J. E Booth, Judge.

Action for separate maintenance on the grounds specified in section 1216, Revised Statutes 1898. From a decree in favor of the plaintiff, the defendant appealed.

REVERSED.

M. C Davis, Esq., and Messrs. Rawlins, Thurman, Hurd & Wedgwood for appellant.

M. M Warner, Esq., and D. D. Houtz, Esq., for respondent.

BASKIN, C. J. BARTCH and McCARTY, JJ., concur.

OPINION

BASKIN, C. J.

STATEMENT OF FACTS.

This is an action for separate maintenance on the grounds specified in section 1216 of the Revised Statutes. It is alleged in the complaint that the plaintiff and defendant intermarried on the 9th of November, 1886. It is alleged in the answer "that at the time of the alleged marriage, and for a long time prior thereto, this defendant had a lawful wife living, to-wit, Mary Ann Riddle, whose maiden name was Mary Ann Eagles, sometimes called Mary Ann Knell, with whom defendant cohabited as his lawful wife until the date of her death, to-wit, on the 14th day of April, 1889; that at all times mentioned in said complaint plaintiff and defendant were and still are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; that on the 9th day of November, 1886, and while this defendant's lawful wife, Mary Ann Riddle, was living, and while said marriage between this defendant and the said Mary Ann Riddle was subsisting and in full force, plaintiff and defendant, under and in pursuance of the ordinances of said church, of which they were both members as aforesaid, intermarried in the temple of said church at Logan City, Utah said marriage being what is called and known as a 'plural marriage,' and at that time permitted and sanctioned under certain conditions by the authorities of said church; that never at any time has there been any marriage of any kind whatever, other than that above mentioned, between plaintiff and defendant, solemnized by any person in any manner, or at all, and no relation whatever has at any time existed between plaintiff and defendant, other than that existing under and by virtue of the sanction of said church as hereinbefore stated." The plaintiff, upon the trial, was decreed a separate maintenance, and from that decree the defendant has appealed.

It appears that the defendant married Mary Ann Levi, his first wife, in 1853, in Utah and while she was still living he married in 1861 Mary Roland, and in 1863 also married Mary Ann Knell; that he cohabited with all of these women until the death of his first wife, which occurred in 1872; that after that time he continued to cohabit with his two plural wives, up to the time he married the plaintiff in the church temple at Logan, and from that time until the death of Mary Ann Knell, in 1899, he cohabited with the plaintiff and continued to maintain his previous relations under the former marriages; that the defendant and all of his said wives were, during the times before mentioned, members of the Mormon Church, and celestial or plural marriage, claimed to have been revealed to Joseph Smith as a prophet of God, was one of the essential tenets of their church; that at the date of the marriage of the plaintiff to the defendant said defendant was under indictment for unlawful cohabitation with his second and third wives, and in 1887 was convicted and served a term in the penitentiary for that crime.

From the abstract of the testimony it appears that the plaintiff testified: "He [the defendant] told me that he had two plural wives when I married him, but I was not acquainted with them. Riddle came with me to my home in Junction, in November, after I married him. I went to Mary Ann Knell's home the last week in November of that year. I believe I was introduced as Mrs. Langford. I was not introduced as Mrs. Riddle. I was known in Riddle's family as Mrs. Langford for the first two years of our marriage, and was so introduced by him. By defendant's request we tried to keep our marriage a secret, but it became known. I did not try to keep it a secret. I told it to my sons and others. I went by the name of Mrs. Langford, and I do to-day. He introduced me as Mrs. Riddle more than he did as Mrs. Langford. Within a year, or less time than that, Riddle moved me away from my home to their home (Mary Ann Riddle resided at the latter place), and of course it [the marriage] became known to his children. He avoided introducing me to anybody at that time--especially in some crowds where he thought he had traitors. . . . For two years after we went to Manti, from 1891 on, we--Mary Ann Knell Riddle, myself, and Mr. Riddle--lived in the same house. We cooked and ate at the same table. The following two years I had a house of my own. I moved and Mary Ann Knell Riddle retained the place we first moved into. . . . Mr. Riddle lived with Mary Ann and me in turn--sometimes week about and sometimes days about. I think I was lived with a good deal the most, because his business was done with me. . . . I believe in the principle of plural marriage--the law of the Church. Mr. Riddle and I were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints at the time of our marriage. I knew there was a law against plural marriages at that time. At the time of our marriage Mr. Riddle said: 'Our marriage is not to be a plural one. My first wife, my legal wife, is dead. I have two plural wives, and I want to make you my legal wife.' At the time Riddle and I were married he was 'on the underground' and I want to make you my legal wife.' At the time Riddle and I were married he was 'on the underground' and told me that he had no legal wife, and that he dare not live with these two others, and was skipping from the 'deps. [deputy United States marshals]. From the time he married me in the fall of 1886, until the following spring, he was 'on the skip--on the underground;' but he was with me a good deal of the time, hid up, and from the time of Mary Ann Knell's arrest he continued to live along with me until his own arrest--in August, 1887, or some time in the summer, at least, in August, after he came back from Arizona. I had no objection to Riddle having plural wives. About keeping our marriage a secret, Riddle said it wasn't wise to throw it around the country while he was 'on the underground.' He asked me to permit him to introduce me as Mrs. Langford, because he wanted to cover up the marriage. He said he would be prosecuted for it--for making things public at that time. . . . When he found somebody he felt safe with, you know, he thought that it was rather nice to introduce me, and make his brags how he courted me and married me while he was running from the 'deps.,' and cohabiting with his plural wives. The trial was in September or October, 1887, and after that I was introduced as Mrs. Riddle only a very few times, because, as Riddle said, to kind of throw a blind--to blind the people. After Riddle came out of the pen, he came right to me at Provo. Riddle never told me that he cohabited with Mary Ann Knell after he came out of the pen, but I knew it. I knew he was cohabiting with Mary Ann Knell after he came out of the pen, but didn't care. He told me about taking Mary Ann Knell to the justice of the peace and being married. He said they went out in the dark, at the gate, and that the justice told them to take hold of hands, and the ceremony was performed, and that he got a scrap of paper for Mary Ann Knell, so it would throw her out in the trial. The justice gave her a paper that answered to throw Mary out, and Riddle said the paper was given to her for that purpose. He told me this when he did it. It was in January or February, after we were married. [The paper referred to was a certificate of marriage of the defendant and Mary Ann Knell.] I kept our marriage under cover as much as I could for five years, until 1891. Mr. Riddle said he would be prosecuted if the marriage became known before five years had expired. And it was an understanding between us to keep things covered up and quiet. . . . I was not with him at the time of his trial, until he had served his sentence in the penitentiary. Did not talk with him until he came out of the penitentiary, when we had a conversation about his being liable to go to the penitentiary for five years, and when he told me he had married Mary Ann Knell, and wanted it kept a secret, and still keep me under cover for five years. He married Mary Ann Knell, unknown to me or anybody, and said he done it to keep her from testifying against him. Riddle also told me he didn't think it would amount to much, and that it was wisdom for me to keep under cover, and pass along, and be quiet and peaceable. He wanted our marriage kept a secret for five years to keep him from going to the penitentiary."

The defendant testified: "Mary Ann Knell gave her consent for me to marry Caroline. I kept the marriage quiet for five years, and did not introduce her as Mrs. Riddle until after that time. Mary Ann Knell and Mary Caroline lived at Manti together, and I introduced Caroline as Mrs. Langford, and Mary Ann Knell as my wife. . . . I called Mary Ann Knell my wife before and after the death of my first wife, and sustained the relation of husband to Mary Ann Knell from the time I married her until 1872, when my first wife died. I married the plaintiff as a plural wife. I told President Crosby, at the time he gave me the recommend to marry the plaintiff, that I had one plural wife and my legal wife. . . . After I married Mary Ann Knell before Alphin, I lived with plaintiff whenever occasion called me there, from the time I married her until the time I left her last fall....