AN IRISH BREACH OF PROMISE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2286, 5 March 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

AN IRISH BREACH OF PROMISE.

Recently in Dublin, a breach of pr' ~pise action was heard, in which Miss Margaret O'Connor, the daughter of a revenue police officer, claimed ill,ooo damages from Mr. Francis Doherty, a Donegal fanner. The plaintiff's case was that the defendant went to Mexico, and made sufficient money to return to Ireland and purchase a farm. In January last he proposed to the plaintiff, who then gave him no decided answer. A week later he again proposed, and was accepted on condition that he would lead a temperate life. He presented her with an engagement ring, and made her presents of jewellery. The wedding was fixed for a day in April, and the plaintiff received a number of wedding presents. Subsequently the marriage was postponed, by mutual consent, until June; but in May the defendant's sister told the plaiutitf ho regretted the engagement, and' soon afterwards he broke off the match on the ground that the plaintiff was too delicate to get married. Afer she had ordered her wedding dresses the defendant wrote her a letter, the reading of which caused much laughter in court. In this letter the defendant said the cat in his house had given birth to three kittens, but they were all black, and owing to their colour the mother absolutely refused to recognise thetn, and they all died.—The defendant's case was that the plaintiff broke off the engagement, and said she would have no more to do with hiin. He denied that he was well off, though in a letter to the plaintiff he had stated that he gavo £700 fur his farm. —The jury found for the plaintiff—damages £300.