A PROMISE NOT TO MARRY

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 185, 20 September 1872, Page 3

A PROMISE NOT TO MARRY

A case, which seems to haye caned great amusement to everybody concerned came before the judges sitting in Banco in the Queen's Bench on May 3. The declaration set forth than in 1868 Miss Crowdy, aunt of the j plain tiff, Mr. Ores well, fiv >m her care j and affection for her nephew, who was | twenty-three years of age, conditionally on • his not marrying a certain young lady, a widow witn three children, whom he hail- lately met on board ship on a voyage from the Cape of Good Hope, agreed ii ? he should continue unmarried to the young lady to allow him L3OO a year during his life. For some reason or other, however, the defendant had intermitted her payments, and in 1871 this action was brought to recover some arrears. The aunt demurred on the ground that the contract was not legally valid that was revocable at will, there having been no legal consideration. The judges held, however, that the fact of the plaintiff having foregone the domestic happiness he had promised himself was a sufficient consideration to make the agreement good in law. It was further urged that' a contract to refrain from marrying was against public' policy. Mr. Justice Blackburn pointed oat that this was'nor a contract to refrain from marrying a particular lady. But (said the defendant's counsel) if a man does not marry, the woman he loves, the likelihood is that he will not marry at all, Mr. Justice Blackburn held that that was too romantic for a court of Justice. . There, is (he said) a case reported where certain property, according to the terms of a \vill, was to be . forfeited if a lady married a Scotchman. She did so,, and the court held that the property lapsed: The testator, no douot, meant a particular Scotchman, but the word-* w?re xr.rfiVientlv °"eneral to include all vSeotchmen. The Lord Chief Justice said the court were of opinion, that the agreement was not invalid for want of consideration, or as being in restraint of marriage and against public policy. The demurrer | must, therefore, be overruled.