BREACH OF PROMISE OF MARRIAGE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5243, 12 January 1878, Page 3

BREACH OF PROMISE OF MARRIAGE.

Lord Coleridge and Mr. Justice Denman had before them the case of Smith v. Strickland. It was an action for breach of promise to marry, and at the trial before Mr. Justice Denman at Liverpool the jury found for the plaintiff—damages £3OO. Mr. Ambrose, Q.G., on the part of the defendant, moved for a rule for a now trial on the ground that the damages were excessive. Ho stated that the plaintiff was a widow, who kept the Bridge Inn, near Preston, and the defendant was a farmer in the same district. The plaintiff had already had four husbands and the defendant two wives. (Laughter.) The plaintiff had lost her last husband two or three years, and the defendant his last wife some six months before the assumed courtship , commenced. It was said to have begun at the end of March, and finished about the end of July in the same year. There had been an improper connection between the parties, though the plaintiff’s case was that this took place ouly after a promise of marriage. It was difficult to see the pecuniary loss which the plaintiff had sustained ; she had a good publichouse, and had saved mouey ; aud she was in as good a position as the defendant. If she had married, the publichouse and the savings would have been the defendant's. Mr. Justice Denman :It was said that the house was to be the plaintiff’s daughter's, Mr. Ambrose : But there was no bargain for a settlement, and the jury could not assume that there would he one. The plaintiff was in a comfortable aud independent position as a publican, but as a farmer’s wife she would probably have to work hard. Lord Coleridge : She might have become tired of being a landlord’s fixture. (Loud laughter.) Mr, Justice Denman : And it was probably her last chance. Mr. Ambrose ! Not' if she continued at the same rate to be rid of her husbands. (Laughter.) The Court thought that the matter was so entirely one for a jury that they ought not to interfere with the verdict. Kule refused.