Accounts Management, Inc. v. Litchfield

576 N.W.2d 233 (1998)

Facts

H and W submitted an application for marriage. They were married four days later. About two years later, H was on a business trip when he suffered a heart attack. W signed an Admission Consent Form as H's wife and also an Authorization for Medical and or Surgical Treatment. H was in intensive care for seven days. H's brain was deprived of oxygen, and that resulted in severe and irreversible brain damage. W got guardianship and assumed responsibility for his affairs until his death from cancer in 1989. The medical bill for the heart attack was $14,170. W made payments on it for eight years. W stopped paying in 1994. AMI (P) the successor in interest on the balance sued for the remaining amount. P got summary judgment. W appealed based on the fact that the marriage was invalid as it had never been recorded.