Citation Numbers: 161 A. 392, 115 Conn. 303, 1932 Conn. LEXIS 138
Judges: Maltbie, Haines, Hinman, Banks, Avery
Filed Date: 7/12/1932
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 10/19/2024
Plaintiff and defendant intermarried on October 17th, 1914, and have three minor children, the issue of their marriage. At the date of their marriage, the plaintiff was twenty-two years of age and the defendant twenty-seven. The defendant was subject to epilepsy, which she had had from childhood, which fact she fraudulently concealed from the plaintiff. The plaintiff learned as early as 1915 that the defendant was then afflicted with epilepsy, but continued to live with her until 1926, when he consulted a physician as to her condition, and was advised that she had epilepsy and should be confined in an institution. Thereupon she was placed in an institution, and the plaintiff has not lived with her since. The plaintiff brought this action for a divorce upon the ground of fraudulent contract. The court found that the defendant, at the time of her marriage to the plaintiff, had fraudulently concealed from him the fact that she was afflicted with epilepsy, but that since he had continued to live with her after he knew that she had epilepsy, he was guilty of laches and had waived, and was estopped to assert, his right to repudiate the marriage contract on the ground that it was fraudulent.
Section 6275 of the General Statutes provides as follows: "Every man and woman, either of whom is epileptic, imbecile or feeble-minded, who shall intermarry, or live together as husband and wife, when the *Page 305
woman is under forty-five years of age, shall be imprisoned not more than three years." A marriage in violation of this statute is not void, but if the marriage was induced by the fraudulent concealment or representation of the epileptic as to his or her physical condition, the other party may be entitled to a divorce upon the statutory ground of fraudulent contract.Gould v. Gould,
Upon the facts found it does not appear that the plaintiff was guilty of laches, or had waived his right to repudiate the marriage contract on the ground that it was induced by the fraud of the defendant.
There is error and a new trial is ordered.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.