DECEASED WIFE'S SISTER ACT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9321, 22 August 1908, Page 4

DECEASED WIFE'S SISTER ACT.

CURIOUS RESULT IN ENGLAND. (" Tlie Queen.") That a marriage should be nullified and yet the children of it be legitimate is contrary to all our preconceived notions on the subject, and would liave been impossible but for the Deceased Wife's Sister Marriage Act of 1907. That Act provided that where a marriage of this kind had taken place before tlie Act passed, and had been annulled by reason of a third marriage with another person validly contracted, the second marriage should nevertheless be deemed to be valid up to the date of such third marriage. This involves the curious result that, although the second marriage is annulled by the third, yet the issue of the second union are legitimate. Unfortunately, however, while rendering such issue lawful, it deprives them, or their mother on their behalf, of rights which, but for the Act would havo been theirs. So long as the children of a union of a man with his deceased wife's sister weo*o illegitimate, they were yet entitled to maintenance from their lather through the medium of the affiliation laws. These rights can no longer be asserted, as was shown in a case the other day, when a woman took out a summons for maintenance against the father of her children, who was her deceased sister's widower, and who had gone, through a form of marriage with the complainant. It was lield that while the marriage was void because the defendant had ceased to live with her and had married another woman, yet it was by the new Act made valid up to the third marriage, and therefore the children of the second marriage were legitimate, although the marriage itself was nullified by tho third marriage. In these circumstances, as the children of the second marriage were legitimate, no proceedings under the Affiliation Act could be maintained. This is a very bard position for the wife and children in such cases as it places lawful children in a worse position than illegitimate children. Tho only way in which a father could be made to contribute to their support would seem to be if the children became chargeable to the parish, when the guardians could compel the father to contribute to their support. This irs not a satisfactory result of the new Marriage Act, which should j certainly be amended so as to give a l direct right of maintenance by the j father to children so placed as "those jin the case referred to. It is true that the Act contains a saving clause for j rights acquired previous to.the passino** of the Act, but it. appears to be helcf that tho clause in question refers to rights of property strictly considered, and not to what may be called personal lights.