common-law marriage
Defined in 4 dictionaries — Case Law, Cyclopedic (1922), Bouvier (1914), Black's (1910)
Definitions from Case Law
From 201 U.S. 319 - Keen v. Keen · 1906Most cited · 1 citing opinions
the question what facts constitute a common-law marriage is purely a local one.
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary
Walter A. Shumaker and George Foster Longsdorf; ed. James C. Cahill · 1922
A marriage based upon agreement by which the parties agree per verba de presenti to become husband and wife, followed by sexual consummation. To constitute a marriage legal, at common law, the contract and consent must be per verba de presenti, or if made per verba de futuro cum copula, the copula is presumed to have been allowed on the faith of the marriage promise, and that so the parties, at the time of the copula, accepted of each other as man and wife. 204 111. 2&.
Bouvier's Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia
John Bouvier; revised by Francis Rawle · 1914
See Marriage.
Black's Law Dictionary
Henry Campbell Black, M.A. · 1910
One not solemnized in the ordinary way, but created by an agreement to marry, followed by cohabitation; a consummated agreement to marry, between a man and a woman, per verba de præsenti, followed by cohabitation. Taylor v. Taylor, 10 Colo. App. 303, 50 Pac. 1049; Cuneo v. De Cuneo, 24 Tex. Civ. App. 436, 59 S. W. 284 ; Morrill v. Palmer, 68 Vt. 1, 33 Atl. 829, 33 In R. A. 411,
Defined under Common Law in Black's Law Dictionary.