21 N.J. Eq. 225 | New York Court of Chancery | 1870
The complainant seeks to have the ceremony of marriage performed between herself and the defendant, in November, 1869, declared to be a nullity. The ground on which she asks this decree is, that although the ceremony was actually performed, and by a justice of the peace of the .county, it was only in jest, and not intended to be a contract of marriage, and that it was so understood at the time by both parties, and the other persons present; and that both parties have ever since so considered and treated it, and have never lived together, or acted towards each other as man and wife. The bill and answer both state these as the facts of the case, and that neither party intended it as a marriage, or was willing to take the other as husband or wife. These statements are corroborated by the witnesses present. The complainant is an infant of nineteen years, and had returned late in the evening to Jersey City, from an excursion with the defendant and a number of young friends, among whom was a justice of the peace, and all being in good spirits, excited by the excursion, she in jest challenged the defendant to be married to her on the spot, he in the same spirit accepted the challenge, and the justice at their request, performed the ceremony, they making the proper responses^ The ceremony was in the usual and proper form, the justice
Mere words without any intention corresponding to them, will not make a marriage or any other civil contract. But the words aro the evidence of such intention, and if once exchanged, it must be clearly shown that both parties intended and understood that they were not to have effect. In this case the evidence is clear that no marriage was intended by either party; that it was a mere jest got up in the exuberance of spirits to amuse the company and themselves. If this is so, there was no marriage. On this part of the case I have no difficulty.
The question whether this court has jurisdiction in such case, or similar cases, to decree a marriage to be a nullity, is not so free from doubt. The fact of marriage can be determined by any court where the question arises, from a justice’s court in a suit for goods furnished to the wife, to this court on a question of alimony and the legality of marriage, and the question whether the ceremony was in jest or earnest, could in such cases be determined. But the finding would only bind the parties to that suit. Another suit tried the next day between other parties might roach a di fferent result, and the judgment in the first suit could not bo received even as prima facie evidence in the subsequent suit. It-could not nullify the marriage relation.
But here the proceeding is in ream, strictly so called; it is upon the matter of the marriage, to determino simply
In the state of Yew York, Chancellor Kent and Chancellor Sandford, both held, with statutes more restricted than that of Row Jersey, that the power of declaring marriages void for fraud or force, was vested in the Court of Chancery. Aymar v. Roff, 3 J. C. R. 49; Wightman v. Wightman, 4 J. C. R. 343; Ferlat v. Gojon, 1 Hopk. 478.
And the Supremo Court of the state of Vermont, in Clark v. Field, 13 Vt. 460, on an appeal from chancery, in a well considered opinion delivered by Chief Justice Williams, held that the courts of chancery of that state had the power,.without any direct delegation of it for that purpose, to declare a marriage procured by fraud and.force to bo void.
I am satisfied that this court has the power, and that this is a proper case to declare this marriage a nullity.