43 Vt. 628 | Vt. | 1871
The opinion of the court was delivered by
It is conceded that the pauper, Lydia 0. Warren, has her legal settlement, derived from the settlement of her failer, in the town of Ludlow, unless she has acquired one since January 22d, 1862, in the twn of Reading, either in her OAvn right or through her marriage with George H. Buck. Deducting the time, since then, which she has been confined in the Asylum for the Insane at Brattlcbcro, as a lunatic, in accordance with section 40 of chapter 20 of the General Statutes, her residence in Reading prior to the order of removal was less than seven years. She has failed, therefore, to acquire a settlement in her own right by her residence in that town. The marriage ceremony was performed between her and George H. Buck, September 14, 1863. His legal settlement is in the town of Reading. At the February term of this court, 1869, that marriage ceremony was decreed to have been a nullity, on the ground that the pauper was before, and at the time, the ceremony was performed, a lunatic, incapable of consenting to or entering into any valid contract of marriage, and that that disability had continued up to the time the decree was granted. The court granting the decree of nullity had .full jurisdiction over the parties and the cause ; yet it is claimed that decree is itself a nullity, for the reason that the facts agreed upon in this case are such that, if they had been made known to the .court, no decree of nullity would have been granted. It is claimed that the facts agreed upon in this case show that George H. Buck knew at the time of the marriage that she had been a lunatic, and that at the time the marriage ceremony was performed she had recovered, and was of sound mind, and continued of sound mind for a year and a half thereafter. If these are the
Judgment of the county court is reversed, and judgment that the pauper was duly removed.