Slais v. Slais
| Decision Date | 18 May 1880 |
| Citation | 9 Mo.App. 96 |
| Parties | WILLIAM J. SLAIS, Appellant, v. MARY SLAIS, Respondent. |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
1. A decree, declaring a marriage void on the ground of mental incapacity of one of the parties at the date of the marriage, should not be rendered except upon the clearest and most definite evidence.
2. The testimony of a physician as to the insanity of a person whom he did not know at the time in controversy is entitled to but little weight.
APPEAL from the St. Louis Circuit Court, LINDLEY, J.
Affirmed.
W. E. HEMINGWAY and L. R. TATUM, for the appellant.
M. J. SULLIVAN, for the respondent.
This is an action in equity to annul, on the ground of the insanity of the defendant, a contract of marriage made between the parties on the twenty-fourth day of January, 1875. The parties were first married in 1864, and lived together for eight years. It appears that the defendant brought a suit for divorce, to which the present plaintiff made no defence. No record evidence was introduced, but the present plaintiff, in his testimony, says: “A divorce was granted us on the fifteenth day of October, 1874.” From this date the plaintiff did not see the defendant until the twenty-fourth day of January, 1875. On the twenty-third day of January, 1875, the defendant came to Potosi, Missouri, where the plaintiff lived, and begged him to be married to her again. To use his own words, The testimony shows that the defendant, whose mind appears to have been ill-balanced at all times, and who was eccentric and irritable by disposition, became at last positively insane. The court below dismissed the bill.
It seems to be assumed that the court below dismissed the bill on the ground that the defendant was insane at the time of the divorce; but the record shows nothing to this effect. On the face of the testimony, we think it clear that the bill should have been dismissed. A contract of marriage is not lightly to be pronounced void on the ground that one of the parties was insane and incapable of contracting. The testimony by which such cases are often supported is open to suspicion, and nowhere...
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Forbis v. Forbis, 7337
...of marriage is not lightly to be pronounced void on the ground that one of the parties was insane and incapable of contracting.' Slais v. Slais, 9 Mo.App. 96, 97. Of course, when evidence on any given issue comes into a case, all presumptions with respect to such issue vanish [Edwards v. Bu......
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Henderson v. Ressor
...that there was no such clear and cogent proof of lack of mental capacity as the law exacts. Payne v. Burdette, 84 Mo. App. 332; Slais v. Slais, 9 Mo. App. 96; Meredith v. Meredith, 79 Mo. App. 636. With their findings and conclusions of fact we heartily agree. Touching this point and anothe......
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Henderson v. Ressor
...that there was no such clear and cogent proof of lack of mental capacity as the law exacts. [Payne v. Burdette, 84 Mo.App. 332; Slais v. Slais, 9 Mo.App. 96; Meredith Meredith, 79 Mo.App. 636.] With their findings and conclusions of fact we heartily agree. Touching this point and another he......
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Westermayer v. Westermayer
...the suit was not brought until after the death of the alleged insane person, and the case was at best but a struggle for property. In Slais v. Slais, supra, the husband had been first from his wife, after which he remarried her, and then sought to annul the marriage on account of the insani......