Pre Contract - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition pre-contract

Definition :

Pre-contract. Where one of the parties to a marriage was under a prior agreement to marry a third person, such prior agreement was called a pre-contract. It was a canonical impediment to the marriage of either party. The Ecclesiastical Courts would formerly enforce this agreement, by compelling the parties to a public marriage, and if one of them had already married, such marriage would be void ab initio; but until thus avoided it was good. See 32 Hen. 8, c. 28, and 2 & 3 Edw. 6, c. 23, s. 2; Bishop on Marriage and Divorce, s. 53. But pre-contract is no longer a cause for dissolving a marriage in England; see 26 Geo. 2, c. 33; Co. Litt. 79 b, and Hargrave's note (4).