Pritchard v. Bigger

Defendant Andrew Bigger married Emma Bigger, the mother of plaintiff Helen Pritchard, some 53 years prior to the commencement of this action. Bigger, a sailor on the Great Lakes, would leave his home in Bay City early in the spring and generally return sometime in December, unless employed at the close of navigation as a watchman on board a ship when laid up in the winter. In 1927 he left his home in Bay City and was not seen again by plaintiff, who is his stepdaughter, until after her mother's death in 1936. Mrs. Bigger for some time was in very poor health, and her only means of livelihood…