AN ENGLISH WIFE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19918, 11 April 1928, Page 11

AN ENGLISH WIFE.

STORY OF DOUBLE MARRIAGE DRAMATIC SURPRISE IN COURT. A case which presents a curious legal problem was lately being studied by the Fourteenth Chamber of the Civil Tribunal in Paris. It arises out of a claim by a former airman, who is now paralysed, that his wealthy parents should make him an allowance of 5000 francs a month for the support of .himself and his wife and child. On the outbreak of the war the aviator, then only 18 years of age, became a member of the famous "Cigogues" squadron, and after bringing down eight German aeroplanes was awarded the Legion of Honour and sent on a mission to America. Thence he went to England, where he secretly contracted a marriage, which his parents caused to be annulled- in France when they learned of it, but by which he had a child. French law provides that a person who is incapacitated has a right to demand sustenance by his parents, but in the present case the parents contended that, while they were willing to provide for their son, they refused to recognise the "woman he calls his wife" or his child. But at this point counsel for the invalid aviator sprang a dramatic surprise upon the Court by saying: "Perhaps the English marriage has been duly annulled, but no one can deny the legality of the marriage which my client contracted this morning with his wife." The marriage certificate, bearing the official stamps of the Mairie at which the ceremony had been performed, was produced in Court to prove that there could be no. question of the status of the wife and child at present. The Court postponed judgment.