EXTRAORDINARY MATRIMONIAL CASE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 130, 3 June 1899, Page 5 (Supplement)

EXTRAORDINARY MATRIMONIAL CASE.

At the Scarborough (Eng.) Court |of Record on April 8, YV'oUf Lewin, I formerly in business in Leeds and I Scarborough as a dealer in antique 1 jewellery, sued his wife Eleanor Lewin (formerly of Nottingham) and her daughter by a former marriage, Miss Agnes Charles to recover the proceeds of a cheque for £04 4/8, and the return of several articles of jewellery, or their value. j The plaintiff said all proceeded j smoothly for live years, and he placed such confidence in his wife that he let her have possession of the jewellery. In 1896 a cheque was remitted by a firm of Leeds auctioneers for a quantity of jewellery which they had sold for plaintiff, and this the defendants had appropriated. Mr G. E. Koyle (for the defendants) asked plaintiff whether he ever mentioned the cheque or the jewellery until, owing to his drunkenness and general misconduct, his wife locked him out of her house? Plaintiff admitted that there was never a wrongword until he wanted some money. Mr Koyle: Did not your wife pay your debts at your request with the money, and give you the balance in small sums? She never gave me even a sixpence for snuiV. (Laughter.) She said that she wanted me to marry her. 1 said. '1 cannot, as you are not a Jewess.' .1 told her that 1 owed a. little money, and she then gave n*e £300. We went, to London. Dr. Adler. the Chief Rabbi, granted a special license, and on this" authority we were married. The Recorder: You had the £300? Plaintiff: Yes. She gave me that to. marry her. (Laughter.) Mrs Lewin then gave evidence that the plaintiff's cheque had been expended in discharging his own debts and redeeming jewellery pledged at York, etc. Mr Costolcw (in re-examination); You were very ill some four years ago? Yes. Did not the plaintiff send you jn some champagne? Mrs Lewin:" Did he pay for it. "(Laughter.) We got on all right so long us I gave him money. He drank six bottles of spirits, and was bordering on delirium tremens. lie got out of bed a.t two o'clock in the morning and went to the police station, and I locked him out. (Laughter.) Mr Costolow: Was not this £300 a present ? No: he said he could treble it in three months, and I let him have it. Do you think 1 give gentlemen presents? (Laughter.) Neither did I ask him to marry me: but I had to pay the hotel expenses in London._ Miss Charles, the daughter, sa_id that the amount of the plaintiff's debt paid out, of the cheque was £47 8/7 receipts produced), and she personally had handed to him the balance, m oddments, as he had asked for it, Mr Costolow: Did the plaintiff ever make you presents? Witness: He might have bought me three-penny-worth of chocolate. (Laughter.) Did he buy you the dress you are wearing? No: - certainly not. The jury immediately found |for the defendants, with costs.