Brown v. Brown

The plaintiff’s action is based upon a contract dependent upon a marriage between plaintiff and defendant. Defendant attempts to impugn the validity of this marriage by proof that a judgment of divorce previously obtained by himself in the courts of a sister State was invalid for lack of jurisdiction and that his former wife being living he was, therefore, incapable of entering into a valid marriage with the plaintiff. A party may not be heard to impeach a decree or judgment which he himself has procured to be entered in his own favor. (Starbuck v. Starbuck, 173 N. Y. 503; Kelsey v. Kelsey,…