Evening star., 1938-11-10
Second Wife's Suit
1ang|es Capt. Nixon S
Third Marriage
Divorce Action MAY
Have Effect of
Voiding Ceremony

Justice Jennings Bailey in Dis
trict Court today was confronted
with the complicated marital af-
fairs Of Capt. Thomas Hay Nixon,
U. S. Army, noted inventor, whose
second wife is asking the jurist to
rule that a Pennsylvania divorce
decree be not recognized In the Dis
trict of Columbia. She wants the
jurist to grant her a divorce here,
although the Army officer has re-
married and by his third marriage
has three children. The second
wife, Annette Pauline Nixon, is q
former stage beauty.
Her lawyers contend the captains
domicile is in the District of Col
umbia and that he evidenced every
intention of making his home here,
even to shipping down here to a
newly purchased house large mir
rors and other household effects
from Gettysburg, Pa, where he
lived before going to the Military
Academy. AS evidence of this, her
attorneys, William E. Leahy and
James F. Reilly, told the court that
large spikes were used to fasten the
mirrors to the walls here, denoting
permanency, and that the captain
paid his personal property tax here
and took out an automobile license
as a Washington resident. The cap
tain is now stationed at Fort Knox,
KY.
Claims Proceedings Undisolosed.
Mr.. Leahy argued that the Sec
ond Mrs. Nixon did not know per-
sonally that the divorce action In
Pennsylvania was proceeding. AZ
ter their marriage in Brookline,
Mass, the couple lived at various
Army posts until 1882, Mr.. Leahv
asserted.
The captain in 1888 sued his Sec
ond wife for divorce in Gettysburg,
alleging cruelty, and she sued him
here on the same grounds, bringing
her action before he obtained his
Pennsylvania divorce decree in 1894.
The Court of Common Pleas grant,
ed Capt. Nixon a divorce and she
moved to set 1t aside, declaring that
the Pennsylvania court was without
jurisdiction.
The Pennsylvania court that gave
Capt. Nixon the decree set it aside,
d different judge presiding. The
Superior Court affirmed that action,
but the Pennsylvania Supreme
Court reversed the lower courts and
reinstated the decree. While the
Keystone States highest tribunal
held that actually the Army officer
was not living in Pennsylvania, he
was on duty in various parts Of the
Nation in the service and was
domiciled in Pennsylvania. Further,
the Pennsylvania Supreme Court
ruled that the captain was bona
fide resident of the State, within
the meaning of the Pennsylvania
divorce code.
Might Void Third Marriage.
The. second Mrs. Nixon wants
District Court to grant her a di-
vorce, which, the lawyers say. would
have the legal effect of making his
present marriage void.
Capt. Nixon's attorrIeys-Rich
ard A. Brown of Gettysburg, David
G. Bress and Alvin L. Newmyer of
Washington-insist that the Penn
sylvania divorce decree is good in
that State and cannot be disturbed
and that the matter is closed
In 1885 Capt. Nixon married the
socially prominent Anne Cooke,
whose sister, Jane, eloped with the
family chauffeur and made the
headlines.
There were no children of the
second marriage, attorneys said.
The second Mrs. Nixon accused
the third Mrs. Nixon of evading
service on the suit in which the
former named her as a defendant
in the divorce action. The game of
hide and seek terminated at a
fashionable apartment house on
Connecticut avenue, when a special
process server found Mrs. Anne
Cooke Nixon and handed her the
papers, but not before a clerk in
volved himself, allegedly, by at
tempting to signal the woman and
warn her that the law was about
to reach her.