Hervey v. Moseley
Hervey v. Moseley
Opinion of the Court
This action is certainly one of novel impression. The principles relied upon in support of it are not applicable to the case, or are themselves unsound. While it may be true, abstractly, that for every wrong there is a remedy, yet we well know that there are many social wrongs, deeply affecting the interest and happiness of the domestic circle, for which no legal redress or pecuniary damages can be demanded in a court of justice by those injured. The present case may be one of them. The laws of the land might have forbidden all marriages by females under the age of twenty one years, and declared all such marriages absolutely void. The state of the female under twenty one years of age might have been declared unqualifiedly a state of servitude to the parents, which nothing that she could do could dissolve. Under such a state of the law, the plaintiff might with some propriety assume, as the leading point in her ease, that the action fell within the general principle of actions on the case for enticing away a servant.
But in the present state of the law on this subject, the right
The only question therefore is, whether the marriage of the daughter was a legal one. That question has been already substantially decided in the case of Parton v. Hervey, 1 Gray, 119, which was a case of habeas corpus brought against the present plaintiff by Parton, the alleged husband, for imprisonment of the daughter and restraining her liberty. In that case it was decided that this marriage of the daughter with Parton, although she was only thirteen years of age, and although made without the consent of her parent, and in violation of the provision of the Rev. Sts. c. 78, §§ 15, 19, which prohibits magistrates or ministers, under a penalty, from solemnizing the marriage of a female under the age of eighteen years without the consent of her parent or guardian, yet was a valid marriage.
While it is true that ordinary contracts, if prohibited by a penal statute, are held illegal and invalid, yet in the case of marriage this principle has been, for sound and obvious reasons, disregarded, and the marriage held valid, notwithstanding the penalty incurred by those who should unite a female in marriage under eighteen years of age, without the consent of her parent or guardian.
This view of the case settles the question of the plaintiff’s right to recover for loss of service of the daughter after such marriage took place, and indeed substantially decides the whole case.
It is however attempted to maintain the action upon the
In the opinion of the court, the proper instruction to the jury would have been, that the plaintiff was not entitled to maintain her action upon the case disclosed. This, we think, should have been done, although no demurrer had been filed under the provisions of St. 1852, c. 312, §§ 17, 21. Exceptions sustained.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Susan Hervey v. George G. Moseley
- Status
- Published