COURT DRAMA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 264, 6 November 1937, Page 21

COURT DRAMA.

ETERNAL TRIANGLE. SUED FOR ENTICEMENT. MAGISTRATE WINS CASE. (Special.—By Air Mail.) LONDON, October 16. "We shall marry when we are free," was the statement made by a 58-year-old J.P., and a wife aged 27 —two of the three principals in a remarkable drama of a wrecked marriage heard at Wymondham County Court, Norfolk. George Fenn, manager of a farm at Scoulton, sued Mr. Alfred Negus Barnes, a magistrate, of Hingham, for the enticement of his wife. During the hearing Mr. Fenn was described as the "passionate" husband, Mr. Barnes as the "spiritual" husband, and Mrs. Fenn as. the "masterful" wife.

Adopted Son. Mr. Barnes won the action, and was congratulated by Judge Rowlands on not asking for costs. He works as a house painter at Wymondham, and for 6everal • hours before the case opened people watched him painting the exterior of the local Primitive Methodist Church. Mrs. Fenn was in Court wearing a smart grey coat, with her 4s-year-old adopted eon, Johnny. Afterwards she said:— "I love Mr. Barnes and would be willing to marry him if I were free. For the moment my health is not too good, but as soon as I am better I shall probably look for work. "Whatever happens I intend to keep Johnny. He was adopted in my name, and has been a great consolation to me in time of trouble." Mr. Barnes said: "For the moment I shall continue to lodge at Hingham with Mrs. Browne (mother of Mrs. Fenn, where Mrs. Fenn is also living). Very likely I shall soon commence to make arrangements to find a home for Mrs. Fenn and her boy. If the opportunity arises I shall marry Mrs. Fenn; it is my one desire to make her happy."

Mr. Fenn said: "I love my wife. I would take her back, but I am afraid there is 110 chance of her returning."

"Law Has Altered." Giving judgment, Judge Rowlands said: "I am inclined to think that Mrs. Fenn is more likely to have induced Mr. Barnes than that Mr. Barnes is likely to have induced Mrs. Fenn. "This is a case which doesn't often come before the Courts. To the beet of my knowledge this is the first case on which such an action has been brought in a county court. "That such an action lies is, of course, undoubted. "It was laid down, I think something like 200 years ago, that such an action did lie and was recognised by the English law, but one must remember that in those days the husband not only had full power and dominion over his wife's chattels; he had power and dominion over his wife's body. "From that time onwards the law has very materially altered, and at the present day, when it seems to be generally conceded that women must have equal right with men in all respects, it seems to me that it makes an action such as this a little more difficult. "I think that the husband in this case was, and possibly is even now, in love with hie wife. I think he was a passionate man, a man who was probably likely to lose control of himself at rtimes.

"The wife, I think, was a woman probably rather disappointed at not having a child. If she had had a child it might have been the saving of the home. • "She was a masterful woman, I think, and would stand very little domination from her husband. I believe her when she says that there were constant quarrels; I think there were bound to be. "Impulse of Moment." "I think that she left her home on the impulse of the moment. She had been ready to leave with her c*ses packed, according to her story, for years. She was certainly ready to leave then, perhaps anticipating that she would be going to the defendant. "I think Mr. Barnes realised that sooner or later this woman would leave her husband, and then Mr. Barnes was offering her his protection. "I do not think that he was asking her to leave her husband, so much as she was looking forward to the time when she could go to him for security and a decent home."