Davis v. Davis

Charles Davis married Mary Nell Davis (defendant) in Texas in 1966. Charles, who frequently traveled for work, traveled to Singapore, where he met Nancy Davis (plaintiff), a young Chinese woman. Charles told Nancy that he was divorced, and Charles and Nancy later participated in a Buddhist wedding ceremony in October 1968, in the presence of family and friends. Charles and Nancy entered into a marriage contract that certified that the marriage had been solemnized. Charles and Nancy lived together as a married couple in Singapore until December 1970, when Charles died in a shipwreck. In January 1971, Mary and Nancy each gave birth to a child. Nancy brought a matter in the probate court of Chambers County, Texas, seeking a share of Charles’s estate. For Nancy to inherit, she had to establish that she was either Charles’s lawful widow or his putative spouse. Nancy testified in a pretrial deposition that before Charles’s death, she learned that Mary had been trying to divorce Charles. At trial, Mary argued that Nancy’s deposition testimony established that Nancy was not Charles’s putative spouse when he died because Nancy was on notice that Charles was still married to Mary. The probate court held, among other things, that Nancy was Charles’s lawful widow. Mary appealed to the district court, which determined, among other things, that Mary was Charles’s lawful widow and Nancy was Charles’s putative spouse. The court of civil appeals agreed with the district court that Mary was Charles’s lawful widow but held, among other things, that Nancy was not Charles’s putative spouse when Charles died. Nancy appealed to the Texas Supreme Court, arguing that she was Charles’s lawful widow or, in the alternative, that she was Charles’s putative spouse.