Estate of Morris

RICHARDS, J.

This is an appeal from an order denying the application of the appellant for letters of administration in the matter of the estate of Lewis R. Morris, deceased. The application of the appellant for such letters was made upon the alleged ground that she was the lawful widow of said deceased and as such the proper party to be appointed administratrix of his estate. The trial court denied her application after a hearing thereon, upon the ground that said applicant was not the lawful widow of the decedent, and upon findings of fact wherein it set forth the basis of

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its conclusion in that regard, and which findings of fact are fully supported by the evidence in the case; and from which it appears that Lewis R. Morris, the decedent, was, prior to July, 1922, lawfully married and living with his wife, Margaret Morris, in Chicago, Illinois; that in July, 1922, having become enamored of the appellant herein, he deserted his said wife in said city and removed to Los Angeles, where he was joined by the appellant and where for the following two years or more they lived together in adultery but as man and wife. In March, 1925, the said Lewis R. Morris, while so living with the appellant, filed an action for divorce from his lawful wife Margaret in the superior court of Los Angeles County; that service was had by publication, the proof thereof showing Margaret to be then living in Chicago, and that an interlocutory decree of divorce was granted upon such showing on December 9, 1925, which interlocutory decree was docketed and entered in said court on December 15, 1925. On December 26, 1925, Lewis R. Morris and the appellant proceeded to Tia Juana and there entered into what purported to be a marriage, immediately after which they returned to Los Angeles, where they continued to reside until the death of the decedent on January 19, 1927; that a final decree of divorce between. said decedent and his wife Margaret was docketed and entered on December 22, 1926; that no marriage ceremony other than that performed in Tia Juana ever occurred between the deceased and the appellant. The evidence in the case abundantly shows that the appellant during all of the times between July 22, 1922, and the date of her said purported marriage to Lewis R. Morris in Tia Juana, knew that he had a lawful wife living and also knew of the fact of said divorce proceeding and of the making and entry of the interlocutory decree therein. It is true that the appellant upon the hearing of her said application testified that at the time of her marriage with the deceased she did not know that his lawful wife was still living and did not know of the institution and result of said divorce proceeding. But her testimony in these respects is directly contradicted and is found to be untrue by the express findings of the trial court, in connection with which the court further found that the appellant, knowing of the fact that Lewis R. Morris had a lawful wife