A CURIOUS CASE IN SYDNEY.

Kumara Times, Issue 1103, 13 April 1880, Page 4

A CURIOUS CASE IN SYDNEY.

One of the most extraordinary cases that has' ever occupied the attention of the District Court came before his Honor Judge Dowling on the 20th February. A boarding-house keeper named Paul brought an action against John H. Muller, a wealthy miner, for L 75 6s 9d, for board and lodging supplied to defendant’s wife, who was living apart from her husband. Defendant refused to pay on the ground of his wife’s adultery with one Christian Rosenberg. When the action was instituted, Mrs Muller was an inmate of the infirmary, and her evidence was taken under commission. She stated that her husband had treated her with great cruelty, and had been guilty of adultery with the servant girl. He had paid her various sums amounting to L3OO, and was then allowing her LI a week alimony. She had always been faithful to him, both before and after he turned her away from his home. After this evidence was taken, and before the case was called on on the 20tb, Mrs Muller died, and the evidence was therefore read. The defendant claimed non-liability through his wife’s adultery ; and called Thomas Rose, of Parramatta, who stated that in May, 1875, he saw Mrs Muller on the Parramatta railway station in company with a man named Rosenberg. She then represented herself to him as Rosenberg’s wife. They asked where they could get lodgings, and he took them to a Mrs Green, who kept a boardinghouse opposite the railway station. MrsJJHarrlet Green’s evidence was to the effect that she believed Rosenberg and Mrs Muller had occupied the same same room, and that they arrived at a quarter to one o’clock in the morning. Rosenberg, who was called by the plaintiff, denied that he had been guilty of any act of impropriety with Mrs Muller, but declared that the whole affair was a conspiracy got up by Muller to enable him to obtain a divorce. He (Rosenberg) was to go with Mrs Muller to Parramatta, on pretence of getting her a situation, and then to pollute her, for which he was to receive L 550 on Muller getting a divorce. His conscience, however, would not allow him to do it, and he informed Mrs Muller of the plot Subsequently, Rosenberg put this statement into writing, and was prosecuted by Muller for libel, and sentenced to two years in Pentridge. His Honor held that adultery had been committed, and that the husband was therefore, not liable for the wife’s debts. He accordingly found for the defendant.