IRISH BREACH OF PROMISE CASE.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2860, 15 April 1878, Page 3

IRISH BREACH OF PROMISE CASE.

Yesterday a .caso was concluded; at Dublin, which. lias excited considerable interest. . Judgment had been allowed to go by default, and the hearing was for the purpose of assessing tho damages.; The action was brought by Miss Emily D'Alton, of The Ferry, ,'Kilrush, against the Bey. Jeremiah Donovan, carato of Jonesborough, near Newry, and the damages were laid at £5000. The parties are cousins, the plaintiff being.now about 22 years of age and the defendant about 28. The Solicitor-General in opening the ease for the plaintiff on the previous day ■aid the intimacy between the parties bad commenced at an early age. They were eminently suited to each other, being each of respectable birth; and, as the defendant had completed his university career with considerable distinction, there was every prospect before them 1 of a life of affluence. 'Jhe learned counsel read a vast mass of correspondence commencing on Sep. 15,1870, and carried on down to almost the last days of 1876. Therefore, for six years the defendant was in close correspondence with bis cousin. The engagement took place in 1875, and the j first proposal of marriage was made by a letter of Nor. 7* 1875. The correspondence went on, but it was interrupted in the month of January, 1876, by a moct extraordinary communication ' from the mother of the defendant, who wrote to Mrs D f Alton to inform her that during all the time that Mr Donovan had bsea paying bis attentions and his addressei to his cousin he had. been engaged to Mother lady whose name .he had •gain and ngtita referred to in the course of his letters. Miss D-Alton at once, wrote releasing him from his agreement, and in reply he said he would write to the "other young lady" to ascertain what course she would take. That lady, a Missj O'Callaghan, adopted the iaine course as Mies D'Alton, by jperemptorily discarding him. The plaintiff, however, seems to have left him a locv.s peniteniim, and Jhe, Wrote to her renewing his offer, which she accepted. So things went on from from January, 1876, to the about autumn of that year. The defendant had been a curate at Kilkee, in the immediate neighbourhood of Kilrush. It appeared, however, that he did sot agree very well with bia rector : there, and he ceased at length to be curate and he then got a curacy at Jonesborough, in the county of Armagh, under a Mr Scott.' Suddenly, however, he began to be afflicted with numbness of the limbs and other symptoms that led him to believe that 'matrimony was, perfectly impossible for him. The plaintiff's father wrote to the defendant telling him that his daughter was not to be trifled with a second time, and defendant therefore got medical/certificates to establish that he was not fit for matrimony, and that at all •rents a postponement of the marriage for ;~12 months was absolutely necessary. The plaintiff was willing that the marriage should be postponed, and she persuaded her father to consent; but it was definitely understood that the marriage should take place in the autumn of" 1876. Notwithstanding this, in the month of August, 1877, eight months after the twelve months' respite, the defendant married the lady for whom he had formerly broken off the engagement with the plaintiff, and he settled his property upon her. There was no additional evidence of impOMance adduced yesterday, and after Mr Heron had addressed the jury on behalf of _ the defendant, the damages for the plaintiff were assessed at £500.—Daily Telegraph, Feb. 7.