47 Ga. App. 168 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1933
L. D. Belle Isle was killed in an accident on April 6. 1932. Two women, each claiming to be his wife, filed separate claims with the industrial commission, alleging that he was in the employment of Barge-Thompson Company, and that they were entitled to compensation under the provisions of the workmen’s compensation act. The employer and the insurance carrier admitted liability, and offered to pay whichever claimant the commission should determine was entitled thereto. It was shown that L. D. Belle Isle entered into a formal marriage with Eunice Fox Belle Isle, the first wife, in 1895, and that they lived together as man and wife until 1914. There are two living children the issue of such marriage. It was also shown that a separation occurred between L. D. Belle Isle and Eunice Fox Belle Isle, by reason of cruel and inhuman treatment of her on his part. She left Atlanta and went to New York, where her people resided, and stayed there until 1917, at which time she returned to Atlanta, and she has been liv
In the case of Clark v. Cassidy, 62 Ga. 407 (4), it was said: “When a marriage has been proved, the relation is presumed to exist until evidence of its dissolution, by death or divorce, and the party asserting the dissolution must prove it. Knowledge of the former marriage by the innocent party to the second marriage is not requisite to render void the second marriage.” This principle was followed in Irving v. Irving, 152 Ga. 174 (108 S. E. 540), and in Brown v. Parks, 169 Ga. 712 (8) (151 S. E. 340, 71 A. L. R. 271). The decision in Murchison v. Green, 128 Ga. 339 (57 S. E. 709, 11 L. R. A. (N. S.) 702), is authority for the holding by Chief Judge Broyles in Ward v. Ward, 24 Ga. App. 695 (102 S. E. 35) : “Where the second marriage by a person is established and it is shown that he or she had previously married another person who was living at the time of the second marriage, the presumption is that the first marriage had been dissolved by a decree of
It can readily be seen that the rule laid down in such cases is founded in reason and justice, and is demanded by every dictate of justice and humanity. The facts in the cases cited above would also go to show either the ignorance of the alleged former marriage by the innocent contracting party or the existence of a valid divorce. It will be found, on a reference to authorities in other States (see 16 L. R. A. (N. S.) 98-110), that these presumptions were indulged in cases involving rights of inheritance, or in contests between a widow and an insurance company, or at the instance of others who were asserting a former marriage, the burden in each case being on the attacking party to show there had been no divorce. In the Neely case, supra, which was an action by the first wife against the railway company for the death of her husband, the railroad company defended upon the ground that a second wife (the marriage to the first wife having taken place in Tennessee, and being prior to the marriage to the second wife, which had taken place in Alabama) had brought an action against them also, and that a compromise verdict and settlement had already been made with such second wife. The first wife introduced evi
In the present case a valid first marriage was established and
It becomes pertinent to inquire whether a woman who has knowledge that a man has a living wife may enter into a marriage ceremony with him and cohabit with him without making any investigation as to whether shell prior marriage has been dissolved by divorce, and then rely solely upon the legal presumption as to the divorce or dissolution of the first marriage, to- prevent, overturn,
The marriage of L. D. Belle Isle to Eunice Fox Belle Isle is not disputed. The only testimony as to his marriage to Blanche Belle
Judgment reversed.