Priestley

This is an appeal by the people from an order allowing defendant’s demurrer to the information.

The information, which charged the defendant with the crime of bigamy, was as follows: “That the said Alfred W. Priestley, on or about the 19th day of January, A. D. 1911, . . . and before the filing of this information, was the lawful husband of one Susan Dunbar Priestley . . . who was then and there alive, and the said Alfred W. Priestley ... to wit, on the 19th day of January, 1911, . . . did feloniously marry one Mabel Addie Cook, the said marriage between the said Susan Dunbar Priestley and the said Alfred W. Priestley . . . not having been dissolved, annulled or pronounced void by a court of competent jurisdiction.”

To this information the defendant demurred on general grounds, and also specially upon the ground that the information does not show that the defendant married “any other person” other than his first wife; that the information does not directly charge that the former marriage of the defendant had not been annulled by a judgment of a competent court; that it does not allege that the former wife was not absent for five successive years without being known to the…