£5000 DAMAGES CLAIM

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20080, 28 October 1939, Page 12

£SOOO DAMAGES CLAIM

SUIT BY A WOMAN CONTRACTOR SUED ALLEGATION OF BREACH (Per Press Association.) PALMERSTON N„ this day. Allegations of breach of promise to marry were made in the Supreme Court yesterday by Ililma Kathleen Poison. Wellington. The defendant was James Lawrence McMillan. Palmerston North, buijding contractor, Miss Poison claiming £SOOO damages. The plaintiff alleged that on May 15, 1924, there has been an agreement to marry and she always had been ready and willing to marry McMillan, but the latter neglected and refused to marry her. Instead, on November 22, 1937. he married Dorothy Sutton, Palmerston North, a picture theatre usherette. In his statement of defence McMillan denied that the plaintiff was always willing and ready to marry him. Further, at the time of the alleged promise the defendant was already a married man and his marriage was not dissolved until October 20, 1937. Therefore, if he made any such promise, which lie denied, the promise was illegal and void as being against public policy. Further, if the plaintiff proved she did not know he was a married man at the time of the alleged oral promise in May. 1924, then she knew he was a married man a few weeks later, and so her present action was barred by the Statute of Limitation. Still further, the defence was that if the circumstances of the relationship between them were such as to imply agreement by the parties to marry, then the plaintiff by her conduct in the years 1936 and 1937 absolved the defendant from any such obligation on his part.