Case Name: In the Matter of the ESTATE of Leoma Joyce Doss WILLARD, Deceased. Connie Royal PUGH, Jr., Petitioner-Appellee, v. Sparkye MABE, personal representative, Respondent-Appellant
Court: Court of Appeals of New Mexico
Jurisdiction: New Mexico
Decision Date: 1979-01-18
Citations: 93 N.M. 352
Docket Number: No. 3626
Parties: In the Matter of the ESTATE of Leoma Joyce Doss WILLARD, Deceased. Connie Royal PUGH, Jr., Petitioner-Appellee, v. Sparkye MABE, personal representative, Respondent-Appellant.
Judges: HENDLEY,.J., concurs.
Reporter: New Mexico Reports
Volume: 93
Pages: 352–356

Head Matter:
600 P.2d 298
In the Matter of the ESTATE of Leoma Joyce Doss WILLARD, Deceased. Connie Royal PUGH, Jr., Petitioner-Appellee, v. Sparkye MABE, personal representative, Respondent-Appellant.
No. 3626.
Court of Appeals of New Mexico.
Jan. 18, 1979.
Charles J. Crider, Albuquerque, for respondent-appellant.
Dick A. Blenden, Paine, Blenden & Diamond, Carlsbad, John R. Lee, Kermit, Tex., for petitioner-appellee.

Opinion:
OPINION
WOOD, Chief Judge.
This interlocutory appeal in this probate case involves the validity of the trial court's ruling that Connie Royal Pugh, Jr. and Joyce, who died February 5, 1977, had entered a valid common-law marriage in Texas. The parties agree that New Mexico will recognize a common-law marriage as valid if the marriage was valid where consummated. Gallegos v. Wilkerson, 79 N.M. 549, 445 P.2d 970 (1968). The appellate issue is whether the evidence supports the requirements for a valid common-law marriage in Texas.
Vernon's Texas Codes Annotated, Family, Vol. 1, § 1.91 (1975) states:
(a) In any judicial, administrative or other proceeding, the marriage of a man and woman may be proved by evidence that:

(2) they agreed to be married, and after the agreement they lived together in this state as husband and wife and there represented to others that they were married.
See Durr v. Newman, 537 S.W.2d 323 (Tex.Civ.App. 1976).
. In 1969, Joyce and Pugh began living together iñ Jal, Lea County, New Mexico. Both were aware that Pugh was married and that they could not enter a valid marriage. Pugh obtained a divorce on March 9, 1970. After the divorce, Pugh could enter a valid common-law marriage in Texas. Rodriguez v. Avalos, 567 S.W.2d 85 (Tex.Civ.App. 1978); Howard v. Howard, 459 S.W.2d 901 (Tex.Civ.App. 1970).
The trial court found:
4. That after March 9, 1970, and specifically the Friday preceding Easter, Connie Royal Pugh, Jr. and Leoma Joyce Doss Willard contracted and agreed to enter into a marriage relationship in the State of Texas and consummated said marriage by cohabiting together as husband and wife in Abilene, Texas.
5. That immediately thereafter Connie Royal Pugh, Jr. and Leoma Joyce Pugh continuously and continued to cohabit one with the other in the State of Texas, both parties introduced themselves as husband and wife, and held themselves out to be married to all people including the parents and family of the decedent.
6. That this relationship of husband and wife and holding out to the public as being married to all members of both sides of the family continued from the period of March, 1970, up to the death of the decedent.
7. That to further consummate and solidify the contract, the parties both bought wedding rings for each other and subsequent to the date of March, 1970, displayed said wedding rings as a symbol and indication of their marriage contract.
8. That the decedent used the name of Joyce Pugh during the period of her employment with the El Paso Natural Gas Company. The name was used for the purpose of obtaining credit through Bankamericard as well as other credit arrangements, and the decedent and Connie Royal Pugh, Jr. maintained a joint bank account in the name of Pugh, one of such banking accounts being in the State of Texas.
9. That the parties to this marriage, namely the decedent and Connie Royal Pugh, Jr., intended for the contract to bind them as husband and wife and they consummated the marriage by living and cohabiting together in the State of Texas and holding themselves out to the public and to friends and family in the State of Texas and elsewhere as husband and wife.
There is substantial evidence to support the findings which go to an agreement to marry and a public holding out, in Texas, that they were married. The dispute goes to the requirement that Joyce and Pugh lived together, in Texas, as husband and wife.
Pugh was employed as an oil field pumper in Texas; Jal was the closet place to live. Joyce and Pugh lived together, as husband and wife, from shortly after his divorce in March, 1970 until Joyce's death on February 5, 1977. Because their residence was in Jal, New Mexico, the question arises whether they lived together in Texas so as to establish a common-law marriage in Texas.
There is evidence that Joyce and Pugh visited Joyce's mother in Lubbock, Texas on an average of five or six times a year. They also visited Pugh's parents in Palestine, Texas. They stayed at a motel in El Paso, Texas for three days in connection with an awards banquet given by Joyce's employer and also stayed at a motel in Galveston, Texas. They visited and stayed with Pugh's brother-in-law in Lubbock, Texas, with Joyce's daughter in Canadian, Texas, and at a friend's home in Dimmit, Texas. These visits were more than casual; they "spent considerable time in Texas"; Pugh's mother testified they would "come down and spend two weeks at a time with us". In addition to their physical visitations to Texas, they maintained a joint account at a bank in Kermit, Texas. Joyce had surgery in a hospital in Andrews, Texas, wearing an identification band, "Mrs. Connie Pugh".
Walter v. Walter, 433 S.W.2d 183 (Tex.Civ.App. 1968) stated that the following definition was substantially correct: " 'The term lived and cohabited together as husband and wife means living together, claiming to be married and doing those things ordinarily done by husband and wife.' " Walter, supra, indicates that the living together need not be for any specified length of time, but there must be a constancy of dwelling together. Durr v. Newman, supra, states: "The short three-day .period of time that the parties were together is not controlling".
The evidence supports the trial court's finding that Joyce and Pugh lived and cohabited together in Texas, and the trial court's conclusion that Joyce and Pugh entered a valid common-law marriage in Texas.
The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
it is so ordered:
HENDLEY,.J., concurs.
SUTIN, J., dissenting.