CURIOUS BREACH OF PROMISE LAWS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 216, 5 September 1908, Page 4

CURIOUS BREACH OF PROMISE LAWS

LEGAL VIEW OF "BROKEN HEARTS" IN OTHER COUNTRIES. England is the best place—from the plaintiff's point of view—for a breach of promise action. All other countries seem to regard with grave suspicion any attempt to recover monetary compensation for the loss of a prospective husband, and, unless the plaintiff has a ivcry strong case indeed, it is never worth her while to carry her grief iuto ■the law courts. hi France breach of promise cases are rare, for the simple reason that the law requires the plaintiff to prove tint she has suffered pecuniary loss. Now, this is not an easy thing to do on the part of the lady, especially in a country ■where a girl without a dot—that is, a marriage portion—has a poor chance of ■finding a husband. Holland and Austria ■have adopted the French system, and the result has been about the' same. ■Breach actions are rare, the injured damsels or their relatives usually taking the law into their own hands.

Practical Germany, as might be expected, has, perhaps, the best method for solving this problem. When a young couple become engaged they have to go through a public betrothal ceremony that ought to knock the shyness out of them. In the local town hull the pair veclaro their all'eetiou, willingness to marry, etc., ending by signing a collection of documents that apparently leave no loophole for escape. Hut if either party to the contract wishes to withdraw another journey is undertaken to the town-hall and another collection of documents signed, witnessed, and scaled. Then the authorities determine the question of compensation—should it be claimed. In this eonneclion it may be said that the man can, and often does, claim n solatium for his wounded feelings. Tin l usual award is one lifth of marriage dowry. It is easy to understand when all this is remembered how loath the young people of Germany are to brciik. their betrothal oaths. As the law of Italy all'ords little r no protection whatever to jilted damsels and swains, it is not surprising that tie stiletto should be the favourite method of deciding breaches of promise cases. The Italian law demands that the person suing for ••breach" shall produce ft written promise to marry from the defendant; otherwise the action cannot proceed. T'. e difficulty is almost insurmountable, and the Italian judges are seldom troubled to adjudicate between one-time lovers. The United Slates of America are, it is well known, anything but united on the question of .marriage and divorce laws. The latter vary considerably, and so do the former. Thus, one Sta'te refuses to recognise breach of promise at all. holding that a man can become engaged ami disengaged as often »is he chooses, whilst anothov and neighbouring State will have laws that can be made to extract enormous damages from defendants on the barest of evidence.

There -was a breach of promise case! recently tried in the Western States, when tin' iilniiitilf, a woman of fortythree, recovered 2,ll(indols. (about £400) from a shop assistant of twenty-eight, who, she said, had ealleil to see her every night for a vi'iir. This she held to he equivalent to an oll'er of marriage; and when he hud the audacity to marry her niece, who had lived with her, she brought the action and won it. To bring an action for breach of promise of marriage against a reigning monarch is an achievement, but it has been done, ami 'hy an English lady. U is now fifteen years since -Miss .lenny Mi"hcll sued the Sultan of .Tohore, and as' There was a doubt whether the dusky one. was actually a reigning monarch the case was allowed to come into court. Hut the judge quickly disposed of the action bv ruling it inadmissible for the reason referred to, and Hiss Mighell was non-suited. It is remarkable that one of the two actions 'which have brought verdicts of £IO,OOO each to the plaintilfs should have had for its defendant the editor ol a matrimonial paper. The second ease v.-,,* between a well-known actress anil the eldest son of an earl.