Blumenthal

This is an appeal by the defendant, Alexander Blumenthal, from a decree annulling his marriage to plaintiff upon the ground that at the time it was solemnized plaintiff was the lawful wife of one Guidice. The decree provided also for a property settlement and for the custody and maintenance of a minor child, the issue of the Blumenthal marriage. Defendant contends, as one of the several grounds urged for reversal, that plaintiff’s marriage to Guidice was void ab initio, and that consequently her marriage to him was valid.

The state of the record is as follows: Originally the action was one for divorce instituted by Mrs. Blumenthal upon the ground of extreme cruelty. Answering, defendant denied the charges of cruelty and added a cross-complaint setting forth four separate causes of action, two for annulment of the marriage and two for divorce. In his first cause of action for annulment it was in substance alleged that at tfie time he married plaintiff she was the lawful wife of Guidice. Plaintiff, in a verified answer to the cross-complaint, denied “that at the time said plaintiff married said defendant herein she was the wife of Edward I. Guidice or any other person,” or that at…