Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-07-15

was actually his wife and entitled to
her monthly dependency check.
The Office of Dependency Benefits,
which mails out the checks, says differ
ent. And Brig. Gen. H. NJ Gilbert ODB
director, can produce the varied mar
riage and divorce laws of 48 States and
the District of Columbia-to say nothing
of the American tribal Indians and
scores of foreign countries-to prove it.
That's why the recent Supreme Court
case involving a North Carolina divorce
tangle brought sympathetic grins from
the legal minds of ODB. They've been
there before.
Acting on the principle that each
State has sovereign power to regulate
domestic relationship principle, ODB
feels, was supported by the Supreme
Court decision in the North Carolina
case-the ODB has always determined
family relationships in accordance with
individual State laws.
Differences in State Laws
The innumerable differences in those
laws have complicated no end the job
of determining the relationships OF SOL
diers and their families. That relation
ship must be determined before depend
entS are eligible for checks from ODB,
which administers more than 100000
family allowance accounts.
Here are some of the differences in
State laws cited by Gen. Gilbert:
In California and Kansas, a man may
marry his Stepmother; in Texas and
Pennsylvania, he may not. Maryland
requires a religious ceremony, rules out
common-law marriages. Florida allows
a ceremony to be performed by notary
public, recognizes common-law mar
riages. In New York, adultery is the
only ground for divorce; in Nevada there
are eight grounds. A relationship adj
mitted under the laws of one State may
be inadmissible in another.
Three-Wife Tangle
Gen Gilbert told of the soldier who
had married three times. His wife di-
vorced him, without alimony, In YER
mont. The divorce decree stipulated
that he could not remarry for two years,
unless he remarked his former wife.
Within the two-year period he mar
ried in Florida. After while he tired
of that wife, too, and departed, ex-
planning the marriage wasn't legal be-
cause of the two-year injunction. In
Massachusetts,, he took another wife.
Wife No. in Florida and wife No.
8 in Massachusetts, both claimed the
family allowance. The checks went to the
Florida wife, even though she had mar
ried within the prohibited period. ODB
decided that one after discovering the
two-year ban against remarriage didn't
apply outside Vermont.
Just to complicate matters, the laws
of most States have been built up from
the common law of England, modified
by statutes and further changed by
decisions of State courts. To determine
the validity of one marriage in Penn
sylvania, Gen. Gilbert said, the ODDS
legal branch had to delve through laws
covering 200 years.
Enoch Arden Gases
Enoch Arden marriages-where one
party marries, believing the spouse dead
and said spouse reappears, very much
alive-have continually posed problems
for ODB. Gen. Gilbert told of a soldier
who married an English woman whose
husband was believed killed in an air
raid in 1910. When the first husband
turned up, ODB ruled the woman was
ineligible for dependency checks. Under
both English and American law, her
second marriage was void.
It would simplify matters for ODB
lawyers, Gen. Gilbert pointed QUITO
say nothing of saving embarrassment
all the way ,round-if wife who be-
leved her husband dead and wanted to
remarry secure a divorce from the
absent party.
AS in the case of the American soldier
who got involved in the English Enoch
Arden affair, soldier marriages through
out the world have added to the COM
plexity of ODB business. Gen. Gilbert
reported that ODB checks are going out
monthly to so countries outside the
United States.
Irish and American Laws
Irish law carried weight in one ODB
decision. Gen. Gilbert told the story
of an American soldier and his North
Ireland colleen who, after going through
a ceremonial marriage and living to-
gether, discovered that the ceremony
had been performed by an unauthor-
lied person. They were properly mar
ried after that but there was still
question about when the Irish wife was
entitled to her first dependency check.
ODB lawyers consulted Irish and Amer
lean laws and ruled the bride was eligi-
BILE for a family allowance beginning
with the month in which the first cere-
mony was performed.
Foreign divorces generally are recog-
rized by the ODB on the basis of inter-
national courtesy. The decree may be
held valid-and the soldier no longer
be required to allot money to that wife
If at least one party was bona f1de resi-
dent of the country granting the divorce.
Mail-order Mexican divorces, where law
yers represent parties who are obviously
not residents of the country, don't count
in the eyes of Obj.
Indian Marriages
The marriage and divorce laws of
gypsies are not recognized by ODB
since they are not considered a political
entity or group, but the tribal laws
and customs of American Indians on
Government reservations are recognized
because of United States treaties with