18 Johns. 346 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1820
delivered the opinion of the Court.
Judgment for the plaintiff.
Ante,p‘
Vide Doe v. Jesson, (6 East, 80. 84.) per Lord Ellenborough. Hopewell v. De Pinna, (2 Camp. N. P. Rep. 113.) In the case of The King v. the Inhabitants of Twyning, (2 Barn. & Ald. Rep. 385.) Ray-ley, J. said, that the law always presumed against the commission of a crime; and, therefore, where, as in that case, a woman, whose husband had enlisted as a soldier, and went abroad, and had not been heard' of since, within twelve months after the departure of her first husband, married a second husband, and had children by him, the second marriage was held to b e prima facie valid ; it being presumed, that the first husband was dead when the second marriage took place; and that it lay on the party objecting to the second marriage, to prove that the first husband was alive. (Vide, also, Phillips on. Evidence, 151. 10 East* 216.>