McBride v. McBride

Appellant, Jacob McBride, was defendant below in a separate maintenance suit brought by appellee, Ola Mae McBride. He defended on the ground that his purported marriage to the plaintiff was void. Jacob contended that Ola Mae was legally incapable of contracting a valid marriage with him because of the existence of a previous undissolved common-law marriage to one Will Donaldson.

Ola Mae denied that she ever agreed to become the wife of Donaldson, who did not testify and whose whereabouts was not disclosed by the record. In the face of this denial, Jacob sought to establish the requisite…