Baxter v. Baxter

This suit, although in form an adversary proceeding, is in substance an ex parte petition by which the appellant seeks a declaratory judgment finding that her first husband is dead and that her marriage to her second husband, the appellee, is valid. The chancellor refused to grant the requested relief, on the ground that the petitioner had not adduced sufficient proof to give rise to the statutory presumption of death.

The petition is based upon Ark. Stats. 1947, § 62-1601: “Any person absenting himself beyond the limits of this State for five years successively shall be presumed to be dead,…