Attachment (law)

“ The consent of the parties is of course essential to its existence, but when the contract to marry is executed by the marriage, a relation between the parties is created which they cannot change. Other contracts may be modified, restricted, or enlarged, or entirely released upon the consent of the parties. Not so with marriage. The relation once formed, the law steps in and holds the parties to various obligations and liabilities. ”

“ That the guardianship of the husband shall cease, and the married woman have an equal right of action in all legal matters, even against her husband; that she shall have the right to plead in courts of law and to carry on business independently. ”

“ The conception of marriage involves, that the woman who surrenders her personality shall at the same time surrender the possession of all her property and her exclusive rights in the state. The state, in recognizing the marriage, recognizes and guarantees the possessions of the wife to the husband; that is, not as against the claims of the wife, for a law dispute with her is impossible, under our presupposition, but against the claims and attacks of all other citizens. ”

“ Man's family relations became a part of the legal conception of his life, and the alienation of a wife's affections was held remediable. [4] Occasionally the law halted,—as in its refusal to recognize the intrusion by seduction upon the honor of the family. But even here the demands of society were met. A mean fiction, the action per quod servitium amisit, was resorted to, and by allowing damages for injury to the parents' feelings, an adequate remedy was ordinarily afforded. [5] Similar to the expansion of the right to life was the growth of the legal conception of property. ”

“ If a right of entry therefore exists, it ought by analogy to be sufficient to sustain the tenure acquired by the husband, where no adverse possession exists; as it is laid down in the books relative to a seisin in law 'he has the thing, if he has a right to have it.' Such was not the ancient law ”

“ And, in order that, under such circumstances, the rights of the community may not be sacrificed, or children or grandchildren be deprived of the benefits of that natural affection which should be bestowed upon them, the law, by which a father or mother, or grandfather or grandmother, have the right to give their property to a stranger, should they wish to do so, or a woman to dispose of her dowry in any way that she pleases, is hereby abrogated ”

“ Resolved, That human law is imperatively obligated to give either party ample protection to himself, to their offspring, and to all other family interests, against wrong, injustice, and usurpation on the part of the other, and that, if it be necessary to this, it should grant a legal separation; and yet, that even such separation can not invalidate any real marriage obligation. ”

“ Thus the status of the Slave has disappeared—it has been superseded by the contractual relation of the servant to his mater. The status of the Female under Tutelage, if the tutelage be understood of persons other than her husband, has also ceased to exist; from her coming of age to her marriage all the relations she may form are relations of contract. So too the status of the Son under Power has no true place in law of modern European societies. ”

“ Such an act as that of signing those instruments, under the circumstances disclosed in the record, must be regarded, both in equity and at law, as a voluntary act, as it was unattended by any act of violence, or threat of any kind, calculated in any degree to intimidate the party or to force the result, or to compel that consent which is the essence of every valid contract. ”

“ Under the common law,—which is the established and recognized rule of action in all of our States in the absence of a local statute by which a different rule is established,—a valid marriage is nothing more than a civil contract entered into between two persons capable of making contracts. ”

“ Under Private Law, a man and a woman would sign a contract to marry, and if they succeeded in living together—"dwelling under the same roof as husband and wife"—for five years without being discovered by the Public Law police, they could then live together openly. ”

“ Marriage requires two parties to give their free consent to form a relationship, which then forms the foundation of a household. FF 20, 34. The spouses must consent to support each other and any dependents. FF 34-35, 37. The state regulates marriage because marriage creates stable households, which in turn form the basis of a stable, governable populace. FF 35-37. The state respects an individual's choice to build a family with another and protects the relationship because it is so central a part of an individual's life. ”

“ And the legitimation of a child by the subsequent marriage of its parents will be held to depend on the law of its father’s domicile or nationality. But the reference to the place of contract, carried to North America with the rest of the English jurisprudence of that date, still maintains in the courts of the United States a struggle with the doctrine of personal law as governing capacity and status. ”

“ To make the improvident and negligent husband and father, as well as those who are liable for the maintenance of the dependant relatives, namely, the grandparents, parents, children, grand-children and relatives of a poor person of sufficient ability, realize the obligations that the law has cast upon them, to advise and admonish in the first instance as to their duty to their dependants, and to punish if advice be not followed, has been the rule and practice of the court. ”

“ The next of kin is a comprehensive term, and must often include those who have no claim for support, and stand in distant relationship to the individual.
We thus infer that a recovery is not founded upon the idea of a legal claim for support, by showing that the action given by the statute is of the same nature as that given by the common law for mere injuries to the person, and is to be governed by the same reasons ”

“ As we have seen, there are certain aggravations and perpetuations of wrong from which husband or wife or children can be protected by law, but the fulfilment of the claims which arise out of the marriage-tie requires a virtuous will in the active and positive sense—a will governed by unselfish interests—on the part of those concerned. ”

“ Mutual Consent.—The mutual and persistent agreement of the parties to be divorced, expressed in the manner provided by law, and after certain formalities and proofs showing that a continuance of the marriage relation is unbearable, and that there exists by agreement of both parties peremptory reasons for a divorcement, is sufficient ground for a decree of divorce. ”

“ It is not true that in all voluntary association between two people, one of them must be absolute master: still less that the law must determine which of them it shall be. The most frequent case of voluntary association, next to marriage, is partnership in business: and it is not found or thought necessary to enact that in every partnership, one partner shall have entire control over the concern, and the others shall be bound to obey his orders. ”

“ It may be shown by what is called habit or repute. Referring to marriage at common law, Kent says: 'The consent of the parties may be declared before a magistrate, or simply before witnesses, or subsequently confessed or acknowledged, or the marriage may even be inferred from continual cohabitation and reputation as husband and wife, except in cases of civil actions for adultery, or in public prosecutions for bigamy or adultery, when actual proof of the marriage is required.' 2 Kent, Com. ”

“ Whether a state legislature has authority to pass a law declaring a marriage void, or to award a divorce, has, incidentally, been made a question, but has never yet come directly in judgment. Marriage, though it be a civil institution, is understood to constitute a solemn, obligatory contract between the parties. And it has been, arguendo, denied, that a state legislature constitutionally possesses authority to dissolve that contract against the will, and without the default of either party. ”

“ So, if a condition be illegal, or contrary to the policy of the law, as, if a legacy be given to a woman if she does not cohabit with her husband and lives apart, such a condition is void, and the legatee is entitled absolutely. ”

“ The error of the learned court consisted in overlooking the fact that the doctrine of relation is a fiction of law adopted by the courts solely for the purposes of justice, and is only applied for the security and protection of persons who stand in some privity with the party that initiated proceedings for the land, and acquired the equitable claim or right to the title. ”

“ Every partnership creates a personal relation between the partners, rests upon their mutual consent, and exists between them only. Without their agreement or approval, no third person can become a member of the partnership, either by act of a single partner or by operation of law; and the death or bankruptcy of a partner dissolves the partnership. ”

“ The only natural relations to which it will be necessary to pay any particular attention, are those which, when sanctioned by law, give birth to the conditions of husband and wife, the two relations comprised under the head of parentality, and the corresponding relations comprised under the head of filiality or filiation. ”

“ A father may represent his son in Court [31] and sue and defend in his name, but if he does so without leave from the Court he will be personally answerable for costs, if the suit proves unsuccessful. [32]
3. Consent to marriage of minor children; 3. Consent to marriage of minor children. The consent of parents is necessary to the marriage of minor children, [33] and without it the marriage is null and void. [34] Consent may be either express or implied. It is implied if the father knows that the marriage of the minor is about to take place and does not forbid it. ”

“ And yet, it is generally accepted as the law, on principle, notwithstanding the marriage is celebrated without license, and the ceremony performed by an unauthorized person, that if the parties simply by mutual consent agree to marry, and live together as man and wife, such consent and cohabitation are valid and binding between the parties, and the issue thereof are entitled to all the rights of legitimate children. To reverse this common-law doctrine by general statutory provisions might work hardship in some individual cases ”

“ The question is not whether a wife ought to receive letters that her husband may not read, or listen to talk that he may not hear, but whether he has a sort of lordship that gives him privileges which she does not enjoy. In our modern notion of marriage, which is getting itself expressed in statute law, marriage is supposed to rest on mutual trust and mutual rights. ”

“ When any man or woman are consented to live together in marriage, they shall acquaint all the overseers in their circuit therewith, and some other neighbours- and being all met together, the man shall declare by his own mouth before them all that he takes that woman to be his wife, and the woman shall say the same, and desire the overseers to be witnesses. ”

“ Each succeeding feast in the consummation of the marriage carries with it an added degree of obligation and of alliance; and an added degree of culpability in cases of failure to comply with the marital obligations and in cases of crimes against the marriage. ”

“ We want our rights; our right to marriage as a mere civil contract—our right to choose with whom we shall enter into that contract, whether colored or white man, and our right to annul that contract when it pleases us. ”

“ Also by preaching and writing on the obligations of marriage, the blessings which flow from unions which are hallowed by perfect and lifelong fidelity to conjugal and parental duties, and the evils which are the consequence of infidelity and frequent separations. Jurists and statesmen may reform the administration of law in the courts so as to decrease the facility of obtaining divorce, and secure to all parties a thorough protection of all the rights guaranteed to them by the civil law. ”

“ If the man and woman agree to take each a portion of land, and not to interfere with one another, 21that agreement is a kind of law; and, in proportion as it is observed, the property of each will be secure. The same plan is pursued by their descendants till they become too numerous to make a mere agreement a sufficient security. They then agree upon an express law, sanctioned by certain punishments, which once more secure to each the possession of what has now become his property by common consent. ”

“ The moment you go a little further in the circle of relationship the power of the prohibitory law becomes stronger, because, the more remote the connection, the more important it is to fence it. Take the case of uncle and niece. We know that in some countries dispensations are granted for such marriages; and there the principle of such unions being admitted men are not restrained by natural repugnance from forming them. ”

“ When the question relates to property brought into the marriage by the spouses, and the ante-nuptial contract has provided for mutual succession, or at all events for the succession of one to the other, alteration or revocation by will is permitted, but it must be Only by mutual will. ”

“ Surely the contractual capacity of a minor is best dealt with in the law of contracts, his capacity to commit a tort in the law of tort, his capacity to commit a crime in the criminal law, his capacity to marry in the law of marriage. Moreover, even if personal capacity is a suitable subject for separate and introductory treatment in the law, there seems little justification for confining the term status to this particular branch of personal condition. ”