160 N.E. 835 | Ill. | 1928
This cause is here by a writ of error awarded by this court at the October, 1927, term to review the judgment of the circuit court of Kane county awarding to defendant in error, Hannah Wilcox, compensation under the Workmen's Compensation act. William Wilcox was employed by plaintiff in error and on February 14, 1924, received an injury which arose out of and in the course of his employment, from which injury he died on February 29 following. Defendant in error, claiming to be the widow and sole dependent *498 of the deceased, filed an application for adjustment of claim for compensation with the Industrial Commission. The only question involved in this record was that of the dependency of defendant in error. All other matters were stipulated.
The concrete question involved is whether Hannah Wilcox, at the time of the accident and death of William Wilcox, was his lawful wife. The evidence shows that she married him in Wisconsin on May 11, 1890, that they were divorced on April 11, 1896, and that on September 18, 1896, he married a woman known in this record as Mary Wilcox. On June 21, 1922, Mary Wilcox procured a divorce from Wilcox in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. On October 2, 1922, defendant in error re-married Wilcox in Illinois. There is no question as to her good faith in this marriage. The statutes of Wisconsin prevented the marriage of divorced parties within one year after the date of the decree, and in the proceedings for divorce of Mary Wilcox from William Wilcox the decree provided as follows: "That the bonds of matrimony heretofore subsisting between the plaintiff, Mary Wilcox, and the defendant, William Wilcox, be and the same are hereby wholly dissolved and they are forever freed from the obligations thereof, provided that this judgment, so far as it determines status of the parties, shall not be effective, except for the purpose of an appeal to review the same, until the expiration of one year from the date of the entry of same. It is further adjudged and decreed that neither of the parties to this action shall marry again until one year after this judgment is entered, and the marriage of either of the parties to this action solemnized before the expiration of one year from the date of the entry hereof shall be null and void."
It is contended by defendant in error that while the Wisconsin court had jurisdiction of the parties and the subject matter in Mary's divorce proceeding against William for the purpose of dissolving the marriage relation, jurisdiction *499
of his person was procured by publication, and that the court did not, therefore, have power to place a limitation upon his re-marriage, and that when defendant in error, in less than one year after the date of the decree granted to Mary, re-married William in Illinois that marriage was valid and binding in this State, and the circuit court so held. Much learning and argument are devoted to the question whether the decree of the Wisconsin court was binding on William in Illinois. Under the Wisconsin statute, where the divorce against William was granted, the decree did not become effective until one year from the date of the entry thereof. The Wisconsin Supreme Court construes that statute to mean, that until at least a year had gone by from the entry of the decree the parties thereto were still bound by the marital tie. (White v. White,
Tht judgment of the circuit court is reversed and the award set aside.
Judgment reversed and award set aside.