Court Opinion

ID: 9690101
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 18:53:45.2145+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:53.544140
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(specially concurring).
Although I agree that in this case, the marriage should not be voided because it was solemnized more than 20 days after the marriage license was issued, at least the parties obtained a marriage license and went through a marriage ceremony and they believed, in all good faith, that they were husband and wife. This was a technical violation of a statute. There is the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. Thus, I would not void this marriage and I join in the decision of this Court.
However, I would modify the 1916 holding of Svendsen, as common-law marriages were recognized in that era, but there is a statute which has abolished common-law marriage in this state, effective July 1, 1959. SDCL 25-1-29. A marriage license and a ceremony are favored in the law and the Svendsen language is too strong for me. I repeat that the two principals had a marriage license in this case. In the Svendsen case, the two principals did not have a marriage license. SDCL 25-1-10 requires that previous to any marriage, a license must be obtained from the county treasurer.
A survival of the Judeo-Christian religion depends, in part, upon the sacrament of marriage. Marriage “is the foundation of the family and of society, without which there would be neither civilization nor progress.” Maynard v. Hill, 125 U.S. 190, 211, 8 S.Ct. 723, 729, 31 L.Ed. 654, 659 (1888). Maynard was cited with approval as recently as 1978, in Zablocki v. Redhail, 434 U.S. 374, 384, 98 S.Ct. 673, 680, 54 L.Ed.2d 618, 629 (1978). See also, G. Douthwaite, Unmarried Couples and the Law § 1.2 (1979). Graham Douthwaite was a Professor of Law at the University of Santa Clara School of Law and his book is a scholarly treatise on the legal ramifications of parties living together and not being married. Marriage then, as a social institution, is favored by the law and public policy. 52 Am.Jur.2d Marriage § 3 (1970). Marriage licenses and a ceremony, which record and formalize the marriage, should therefore be encouraged by the law. I remind the reader that at the time of the Svendsen decision, when it was concluded that a marriage “license is not an essential to a valid marriage in this state[,]” Svendsen, 37 S.D. at 367, 158 N.W. at 413, common-law marriages were recognized in South Dakota.