## Facts

- Charles Davis married Mary Nell Davis in Texas in 1966 and later worked overseas.
- While still married to Mary Nell, Charles participated in a Buddhist marriage ceremony with Nancy (Kway Da) Davis in Singapore in October 1968; they lived together there as husband and wife until his death.
- Charles represented to Nancy that he was divorced; Nancy believed the marriage was valid and relied on the ceremony and a written marriage contract.
- Charles died in a shipwreck on December 24, 1970.
- About one month after Charles’s death, both Mary Nell and Nancy gave birth to daughters.
- In Texas probate proceedings involving wages due and insurance proceeds deposited into the court registry, Nancy sought recognition as Charles’s lawful or putative wife and asserted inheritance rights for her child; Mary Nell contested Nancy’s status and the paternity of Mary Nell’s child was litigated.

## Issues

1. Whether Nancy was Charles’s lawful widow despite his prior undissolved marriage to Mary Nell.
2. If not, whether Nancy qualified as a putative spouse based on good-faith belief in the validity of her marriage at least through Charles’s death.
3. Whether Mary Nell’s posthumously born daughter was Charles’s child for inheritance purposes.
4. Whether spousal testimony of non-access is admissible to rebut the presumption of legitimacy.

## Decision

- The court held Mary Nell was the lawful widow because no divorce dissolved her marriage to Charles.
- The court held Nancy was not a lawful पत्नी but was a putative spouse and could share in the wages and insurance proceeds as awarded by the district court.
- The court affirmed that Mary Nell’s daughter was not Charles’s child and therefore could not inherit from him.
- The court held spousal testimony on non-access is admissible to rebut the presumption of legitimacy and rejected the prior categorical bar on such testimony.
- Disposition: affirmed in part and reversed in part, restoring Nancy’s putative-spouse recovery.

## Legal Principles

- Texas presumes the validity of the most recent marriage, but the presumption can be rebutted by evidence showing no divorce occurred in likely jurisdictions.
- A marriage is void if a prior marriage remains undissolved; the later spouse is not a lawful spouse for inheritance purposes.
- Under the putative spouse doctrine, a person who enters a void marriage in good faith, reasonably believing it valid, may obtain equitable property rights; continued good faith through the relevant period is a fact question.
- The presumption of legitimacy is strong but rebuttable in inheritance disputes.
- Spousal testimony of non-access is admissible to rebut legitimacy; credibility and weight are for the factfinder.

## Conclusion

The court confirmed that an undissolved prior marriage defeats a later marriage’s validity but protected the later partner’s equitable property rights as a putative spouse when she acted in good faith, and it allowed spousal non-access testimony to rebut legitimacy and deny inheritance to a child found not to be the decedent’s.


Davis v. Davis, 521 S.W.2d 603 (Tex. 1975)