A French Breach of Promise.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 95, 25 April 1891, Page 3 (Supplement)

A French Breach of Promise.

' Men were deceivers ever,' even in France. But, as in England, they may have to pay the penalty. ' Breaches of promise actions are likely to ' catch on' in that capital at any rate, if they are as remunerative as one just heard at the Tribunal of Beziers, in the South of France. This, a Paris correspondent thinks, is tbfe first action of the kind in that country. In this case a young couple wore about to be united, the banns had been made public, cards sent out to the friends, aud tho wed-ding-dress had received tbe finishing touches of the dressmaker. The weddingday came on and nothing more was wanted but the bridegroom. This indispensable man had, however, thought a second time about the marriage, and be never came. The disappointed bride brought an action for damages against her too fickle suitor. The sentence of the Beziers bench is extremely curious. • Whereas the promise of marriage,' bo it runs, ' was of public notoriety, the banns were published, and a rude breaking-ofi of the marriage was calculated to injure the bride's family : whereas the latter had been to a considerable expense in view of the ceremony, particularly in view of the bridal dress and the accessories (euphemism for troueseau), the bridegroom is bound to compensate them, &c. The bridegroom is sentenced to £160 damages for the moral injury to the family (not to the bride 1)5 and to indemnify them for the cost of the wedding-dress and the interest on the outlay.'