Court Opinion

ID: 9681761
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:56:07.674395+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:35.757621
License: Public Domain

Griffin Smith, Chief Justice, dissenting. The factual background, when weighed by the preponderating evidence rule, is not the test here. The testimony abundantly supports appellant’s assertions that her husband told her he was divorced. We may even disregard these statements and assume .that he did not mention the subject: still public policy demands that when a wedding occurs each party be legally competent to contract. In the majority opinion it is conceded that a factual issue was presented when contradictory statements of the wayward couple relating to the New York ceremony was presented; but the former spouse of neither is complaining, and admittedly the situation is one where a party to a crime, if such occurred, asks a court of equity to relieve him from the consequences of his own wrongdoing. No documentary evidence supports appellant on the vital issues, hence we have the word of philandering Jimmie to weigh against the declarations of an imprudent and from the worldly standpoint immoral mother. Man’s measure of condemnation has ever been severe, but the tenets of equity, based upon precepts of Christianity, have measurably ameliorated the masculine concept of a double standard through substitution of forgiveness and a kindly spirit. It is not a waste of time to read the Gospel According to St. John, chapter four, and consider the situation of the Woman at the Well. Where children are involved and the result of ignoring the presumption to which reference has been made is to brand them with the social status of illegitimacy, I would accept the presumption as an attribute of Right, and compel the admitted father to recognize his children without painting them with the brush of parental wrong. The record conclusively shows that this unfeeling father pursued the willing Mrs. Shelby almost from the hour of their first meeting. Her physical attractions were the consummation of desire. The possessory urge was of such a nature that social conventions were disregarded. Now, with passion satiated, the object of his solicitude becomes the Woman of Samaria.