Curious Claims for Damages.

Manawatu Herald, 18 October 1904, Page 2

Curious Claims for Damages.

#—-—£.■ A recent action in which a plaintiff sued certain defendant# for damages for “ enticing - his • Wife away” had a curious parallel in America a short time ago, in which a gentleman described as “ sensational and society post ” claimed £20,000 damages from his father-in-law for alienating, his wife’s affection. But there is no limit to the variety of out-of-the-way lawsuits. A Miohigon girl a year or two ago recovered 500 dollars from a steamboat company for naming a boat after her her without the fair plaintiff’s sanction. But the real “ causa causans” of, the litigation was a paragraph stating that “ Millie in question), having been thoroughly scrubbed, painted and., refitteff. with new boilers, will here-after poke her pretty nose into ishe lake business for all she is worth.’? It was an Indian lady who mixed a drink cure with her brother’s liquid, and 'Was sued by him for £IOOO for consequent loss of thirst. A Michigan widow brought an action for heavy damages against a railway company for cremating her husband’s legs (the poor man had been run over and killed) without her permission. Another American lady claimed damages from a beauty doctor, who had restored one side of her face to its pristine loveliness and declined to touch the other, abd a lady librarian of Los Angelos; sued one of the city pastors for £IOOO damages for praying in public, for “ saying grace to make her worthy of her office.” In another case a widow sued an .insurance company to compel payment of the insurance of her husband, who died .from a mosquito bite ; and : the weather bureau of the United States "was prosecuted not long ago by a shipowner whose cargo of rice was ruined by rain through a misguided reliance on the weather forecast.