Marriage

PROMISE OF. A promise of marriage is a contract entered into between a man and woman that they will marry each other.

Marriage, as distin. guished from the agreement to marry and from the act of becoming married, is the civil status of one man and one woman united in law for life, for the discharge to each other and the community of the duties legally incuimbent on those whose association is founded on the distinction of sox. 1 Bish. Mar. & Div. § 3. A contract, according to the form prescribed by law, by which a man and woman, capable of entering into such contract, mutually engage wilh each other to live their whole lives together in the state of union which ought to exist between a husband and wife. Shelf. Mar, & Div. 1. Marriage is a personal relation arising out ofa civil contract, to which the consent of parties capable of making it is necessary. Consent alone will not constitute marriage; it must be followed by a solemnization, or by a mutual assumption of marital rights, duties, or obligations. Civil Code Cal. §.55. Marriage is the union of one man and one woman, “so long as they both shall live,” to the ex tion and act dissolve, but which can be dissolved ) enly by authority of the state. 19 Ind, 53. The word also signifies the act, ceremony, or formal proceeding by which persons take each other for husband and wife. In old English law, marriage is used in the sense of “maritagium,” (q. v.,) or the feudal right enjoyed by the lord or guardian in chivalry of disposing of his ward in marriage.