Whitfield

This is an action to establish a constructive trust, for declaratory relief, and to quiet title.

In 1941 Francis Flaherty and Lucille Sudduth, hereinafter referred to as Frank and Lucille, respectively, commenced living together as husband and wife; previously had been married and were predeceased by their respective spouses; were not then married to each other because Lucille was receiving a pension arising out of the death of her deceased husband which would have terminated in the event of her remarriage; told Frank’s son Leo, a teenager, that they had been married in Las Vegas; and on August 1, 1959, when both were over 80 years of age, actually married. Leo’s mother died when he was 4 years of age; after that he lived with his father until the latter purportedly married Lucille; thereupon lived with his father and Lucille who, as he expressed it, “became” his mother; and entered the armed services in 1943. Subsequently, Frank and Lucille lived in separate dwellings until shortly before their actual marriage in 1959, but in the interim “they always were dating and going together almost constantly.” The evidence indicates that they lived together very happily. However, on…