Estate of LeMont

This is a dispute between the brother of decedent (James) and a woman (Maurine) claiming as his surviving spouse. The trial court made an order finding that Maurine was the surviving widow of decedent, entitled to a family allowance and granting her letters of administration. The brother has appealed; we reverse the order.

Decedent was Maurine’s second husband; no issue is made here as to the validity of that marriage. They separated and in 1958 he wrote to her saying that he was moving to California; she never heard from him thereafter during his lifetime. Inquiries made in California in 1963 were unavailing and, believing him to be dead, she contracted a third (Mexican) marriage in 1964 to Merle Jones. After decedent’s death in 1968, Maurine learned of his continued existence and, in 1969, secured an annulment of her third marriage.

The record before us tells us no more about decedent than that Maurine had not heard from him after 1958 and that he died, in California, in 1968. The record of the annulment action in 1969 is also not before us and was not before the trial court. Under these circumstances, it is argued that, under the doctrines lately discussed by this…