Williamson v. Williams

• Decision Date: 31 December 1857
• Citation: 56 N.C. 446,3 Jones 446
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: DAVID WILLIAMSON AND AMELIA his wife, v. HENRY B WILLIAMS, J. B. CASHION and another.

3 Jones Eq. 446

56 N.C. 446

DAVID WILLIAMSON AND AMELIA his wife,

v.HENRY B WILLIAMS, J. B. CASHION and another.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

December Term, 1857.

*1 A court will not entertain the question of “nullity of marriage on account of imbecility,” incidentally, but will stay proceedings in the suit in which such issue is made, that it may be determined by a direct sentence in either a superior court of law or a court of equity.

CAUSE removed from the Court of Equity of Mecklenburg county.

The bill was filed by the plaintiffs, as husband and wife, against the wife's guardian, for an account and settlement of his trust. By way of anticipation, it was alleged, that the form of a marriage had passed between the feme plaintiff and one Cashion, who is still living, and that the defendant made that as an excuse for not settling with the plaintiff; but that this was not a bar to their right of recovery, for that at the time of this pretended marriage, she was little over thirteen years old; was very weak of intellect, and was brought to submit to this pretended ceremony by fraud and artifice, accompanied, in some degree, with actual force, but that she did not understand the nature of the transaction in which she was involved; that she did not give her consent to a marriage, and never afterwards consummated such a marriage by cohabitation with said Cashion; that she remained in the house of the said Cashion, closely watched by his near relations, residing with him, for about six months, when accidentally meeting with her mother, she was rescued from this state of duress by her, assisted by her slaves; that she never saw or spoke to the said Cashion afterwards; that he shortly after this ran away from this country and went to parts unknown to her; that this took place in 1846, more than nine years before the filing of this bill, and that the said Cashion, except one visit to her mother's house, a few days after her rescue, when she refused to see him, has made no assertion of marital rights or authority. The plaintiffs state that, not deeming such an iniquitous transaction a marriage, after arriving at mature years and a better state of mind, she entered into a marriage with the plaintiff Williamson, and as such husband and wife, this suit is brought for the recovery of her estate, which consists of land and slaves and money, and the profits arising from these for several years past.

The defendant Williams, the guardian, avers the validity of the former marriage, and alleges it in bar of the plaintiffs' right to recover in this action.

A judgment pro confesso was entered as to the defendant Cashion. Replication, commissions and proofs, and the cause being set for hearing, was sent to this Court, where the case was contested upon the question of the validity of the former marriage.

Osborne and Jones, for plaintiffs .

Wilson, for defendants .

PEARSON, J.

*2 This is an ordinary bill by a ward against a guardian for an account and settlement of her estate....