ADANCER'S BREACH OF PROMISE

Evening Star, Issue 17368, 2 June 1920, Page 3

ADANCER'S BREACH OF PROMISE

" HOW HAPPY I COULD BE WITH EITHER," ETC. A suit in which £2,000 is claimed for alleged breach of promise to marry was opened at-Melbourne on May 18 before Mr Justice Mann and a jury,"the principals being well.known in the theatrical world as the chief dancers of J. C. Williamson's touring companies that have visited Dunedin lately. Daisy Yates, whose real name is Ellen Manigay Daniels, married, is seeking to recover the above-mentioned sum from Sydney Yates, otherwise Sydney Culrerhouse, for alleged breach of promise nade -in June. 1917, and repeated in October, 1918. The name of another famous lanseuse—Maggie Dickinson—cropped up hirii-g the hearing, it being averred that fates had discarded the plaintiff on account of his infatuation for the younger irtist*. ° According to the opening of plaintiffs counsel, the parties to the suit first met in Paris in 1914, -when the plaintiff, who was ajready famous as a dancer, was "starring" under the name of Daisy Yates. The defendant, Sydney Culverhouse, was then in charge o"f a dancing troupe in Pans, and, as plaintiff hai entered into a contract -with the Moulin Bouge for a part in which a dancing partner was necessary, at her suggestion the defendant was engaged to dance with her. At that time' she was a married woman who had been deserted by her husband-. Wh.en he came as her dancing partner Culverhouse took the name of Sydney Yates, and as Daisy and Sydney Yates they entered into joint rontracts at a joint salary. Soon after the war broke out they went to England, and, having become attached to one another, they went to South Africa—believing that plaintiffs husband was there—in order that plaintiff might obtain a divorce on the jround of desertion. After reaching South Africa, they found that the husband had ?one to Australia, and they followed him There, entering into a contract with J. C. Williamson, Ltd., at the end of 1915. Tn December, 1916, the plaintiff applied for and obtained a divorce, from her husband for desertion, receiving also by wav of alimony a sum of £lB5. Plaintiff, "who was very fond of the defendant, was. in the habit of lending him money, and l he appeared to have spent the greater portion of their joint income. In 1916, while

posincr as her brother, he -was taking out other women, and- one one occasion he asked her for money to repay a sum borrowed from another'-woman. She said, as she always did, that 6he would., but added: "I don't think it fair. You are flirting ■with other woiifen, and taking them about, under the cloak of being my brother, when you are really engaged to me. What do you intend l to" do?" Defendant replied that they would get married right away, but it would not be wise to announce it, as they were known as brother and sister. Within a week he came to her and he said that something had occurred which made it impossible for him to marry her for the time" being. He hirther asked her- to let things stand until shev finished their contract, and then ftev would' be married and go out of the country. DANCING PARTNERS CHANGED. Plaintiff replied that she would wait antil the contract expired in June, 1918, but at the end of 1917 Mr Wenman, who was in control of the theatrical destinies of the two, suggested that Sydney Yates should dance with Miss Maggie Dickinson, who was Mr Wenman's sister-in-law. Defendant agreed, but the firm still had to pay the plaintiff her salary under the contract. The firm did not, however, allow her to appear in the company, so that she was really supplanted by Miss Dickinson. Defendant then went on tour, and a correspondence occurred, which he would read to the jury. In July, 1918, defendant wrote : My Dear Daisy,—lt is impossible for mo to say how furious I am with von for going up to J.C.W. and questioning them on further work. I distinctly told you before I left that I would do all the business. Darbyshire has written asking if money matters are all right here, as you have been up to the office askiiv for money. ... I will be able to spend a day with you when we return to Sydney if the boat gets in on time. Get that crazy idea of America out of your head—for the time being, at any rate—as I intend to stay while the soin<r is good. " ° In August, 1918, after his return from Aew Zealand, he wrote to her from Brisbane, saying that he intended to stay on another two weeks' to do a cabaret dance with Maggie Dickinson in Muriel Stan-'s play 'The Man Who Came Back.' He added that the firm wished to give him a separate contract to dance with Miss Dickinson at £l4 a week, and he felt sure that plaintiff could also get a separate contract: but in the event of her not doiii" so would pay her £7 a week. He did not want plaintiff to stand in his light, but if she took the letter wrongly he would subscribe £IOO for her expenses in goinsr to New York. If she could not get work at once he. would send her monev until she was successful He intended'to stay in Australia until he got some monev. " He told her not to go to the office anci interfere, for there would be serious trouble if she did. The letter ended: "Kindest thoughts- and love. Thine, Svd." On August 17, 1918, defendant wrote another letter, in which he stated that he had received a telegram from plaintiff about his letter, and, as he surmised, she "had read it all wrong." He said that he was having a good time, and intended to do so vhile he could. He added : Fix yourself up with Tait or Rickards, and start as soon as }-ou can, as I intend to work with Maggie Dickinson. All that silly idea of refusing to work with anyone but myself must come out of your head. It would be a different thing if we were'home, but we are not, and I do not care what I do so long as tho money is forthcoming. Please" do not write any more of those " all is lost " letters.

MADLY AND HOPELESSLY IN LOVE. , Another letter written on August 27, 1918, was received by plaintiff from defendant, in -which defendant said : I do not know how you are doing for money. If you have not enough to last until I get back, iust -wire. Do uot think I have any, though. . . . i feel I mssi raake my confession to at last. I have bottled it up for a long time. The fact is I am madly and hopelessly in love with Maggie. Don't think I am trying to hurt you by confessing this, but I would feel such 4 ««»a when we met if you did not know. I will still be the same thoughtful boy to you, and I will have your interests *t heart, both financial and otherwise, but I can never be the same old Syd. It had to come sooner or later, and there it is. In October, 1918, defendant came back Jo Sydney, and etayed at Adams's Hotel, where plaintiff was then living. There they had a serious conversation. Plaintiff raised the question of their future movements, and whether they weTe going to get married. Defendant said, when plaintiff referred to Miss Dickinson : "That i?, 0 ." 1 ? ° ne of m y Passing infatuations." Plaintiff replied that that was all very well, but she wanted something definite. Defendant replied that he could not marry her ]}4t then, as it would upset all his arrarn. sments for dancing with Miss DickivSon, which was satisfactory from a financial point of view, but added : "If anything goes wrong with the arrangements I will come back immediately • and marry yon, and in any case, as soon as the present contract is finished I •will marry you, and we can go off to America. You get the passports, and I will follow you as soon as I can." Plaintiff replied that she would like something definite, and in writing, and defendant then wrote:—. Dear Daisy,—l swear that if anything happens to my present -affairs I will come back to you and marry you, if you are willing on those conditions. This I swear to you on my most solemn vow of Masonry, this eleventh day of October, 1918. Love.—Sydney. Then on October 18, 1918, defendant wrote a letter which was the very apotheosis of self. Defendant said : . Dear Daisy,—l aja writing you this note, aa a desperate and worried man. I fully believed that when I left Sydney I would get a few days' peace of niind, which would help me to make

good in a new piece and save the breach that is likely to occur to prevent Marfot and myself from dancing; but the rm are no fools. They have already got a blow in by not letting me dance in the panto, with her. and making me step in this revue. Now you turn i'p with no other thoughts but of selfdestruction, bordering on lunacy, and apparently you are content to want to die or commit suicide, little thinking of the poor worried boy who would have the finger of scorn pointed at him. and who may be hounded out of the country, and branded as a rotter. . . . Do you think you could be happy seeing me worldly, socially, and morally disgraced? "lou know tho old saving, it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. lam bound by the word of honor to two women. For tho sake of the past, and everything I am going through—and God knows I am suffering—cannot you hear the appeal of my sorrow, and try to get work or something. Surely you are not content to sit in the same hotel and know that I am being broken up socially, as well as financially. . . . After all, time is a great healer. At the end of 1919 it was publicly announced that defendant hail become engaged to Miss Dickinson, and tho announcement went uncontradicted ' by the defendant. Plaintiff then placed tho matter in the hands of her solicitors. She had been quite prepared to marry defendant at any time, even after the issue of tho writ. RACY CROSS-EXAMINATION. Plaintiff said that about September 20, 1918, a paragraph appeared in the ' Australian Variety and Show World,' which said that it was rumored that Sydney Yates and Maggie Dickinson were thinking of "joining in connubial felicity." She asked defendant if the paragraph were true. He replied that there was no truth whatever in it, and promised to write acontradiction. The contradiction appeared in the following issue of the paper, which said : We have received a letter from Mr lates giving the statement an emphatic denial. ...'•* we locate the "sticky-beak" who came along with the new j we will hand her one on behalf of both parties. At the end of 1918 Yates advised her to go to America, saying that he would follow and marry her. Her reply was : "If you will give me something definite in black and white I will go away happy," whereupon he wrote his promise to marry. She did honestly try to go to the States, but the restrictions imposed at the time prevented her from carrying out her intention. A month later "she took out an injunction against Williamsons and Yates to prevent the latter from appearing with any other dancing partner but herself. At that time she was very- unhappv, and fretting, and had lost weight. After the writ was issued she wrote the following letter to the defendant:— » I am 60 unhappy at the state of our affairs, and must write to you, even if it means losing my case, fio not think because of this action that I have ceased to care for you, because'it is not so; but I have been forced to take this action because of yonr breaking your contract with me, 'saving me out of work and with very little money, the firm refusing to pay me my fares home if I work for anya-ie els*, and the Government refusing to grant me a passport to leave Australia. You know you promised to marry me, if things went wrong, and you know, dear, they are bound to eo wrong. If you will come back to me at the end of your contract I shall drop everything. You know I want you now, and in another two or three months I may not. We were very happv before all this rot with Mis 3 Dickinson started. Think things over qnietly, and see. if you cannot come to mv way of thinking, dear, and save all the delay, trouble, and scandal of the case. If you do not I am going to fight for my rights, but I would rather have you. Tn May, 1918, she received some photographs from defendant, and there was written on the back of one of them the following words:— •

To tho world I was yonr brother, Tete-a-tete I was your lover. If your tongue I could only smother There would never be another. To the biggest nuisance exta.nt, w;th a heart of gold and with all the faults possible. I love you, and, come what may, I shall never forget.—From the rotter, Syd. May, 1918. Another photograph was inscribed: May the kiddie arid self live as long as you want, and never want as long as you live, is the loving wish of tho only one.—Syd. May, 1918. . Her age was 30, though according to the marriage certificate it was 36; but she had to make a false declaration then, as she was under age. She denied emphatically that she told Mr Isaacson at Svdnev that she would be perfectly satisfied "if her passage to the Old Country (£150) w e r 0 paid; that she wag delighted Svd would have happiness with Miss Dickinson; that she would not stand in his light, and hoped to receive an invite to his wedding Are you bringing this action because you love him?— Yes. Money never entered into it?— No. And in the hope that you would force him to marry you?— Yes. There is not another motive of revenue' —No. c Revenge never entered into it?—\" o • but I heard that Mr Yates was "oing : around saying that I was his metres? In a broken voice:) I had my child to keep, and I do not want its mother to be known aa his mistress. Did you ever say to ahvone that vou were going to make Sydney "sit up"'— So far as I know, no. When the break occurred between Sydney and myself I do not know what I said. I was "distracted at the time, aud almost out of my mind ; (Weeping.) I realised that he had this other woman, and intended to throw me aside. I never gave up hope of his coming back to me until he announced his engagement. Sydney had had other affairs before this, and I hoped it would end as the others—that it would blow over, and he would come back to me. Did he not tell you in October, 1918, that reports you had bean circulating had caused Miss Dickinson's family to be opposed to the engagement?— No. You continued to love him right through and do still ?—Yea. " ' And you would marry him now?— Yes. Mr Macfarlan was questioning Miss Yates closely concerning the exact meaning of certain phrases in the letter she wrote to defendant in the early part of December, when she cried out hysterically ? "I was simply crazy with grief at tne time, and I wrote- him dozens and dozens and dozens of letters. When you are writing to a man for whom vou axe simply crazy with love you don't know what vou are writing." In May, 1919, y* tt began proceedings against him for the recovery of £10? Yes; I was angry when he came over here and cut me dead, and told me I was not good enough to know. Did you not -write the following letter to him : I am through with love. Please try to understand this letter. I cannot bear you not having everything you want so am enclosing you this. I hare not much, but all I have is yours, because I always looked upon you as mv husband in the sight of God, You enclosed a £5 note, which he sent back to you, and complained of your insulting him by offering it ?—Yes. _You said you were "through with. Joye." Then there is another letter from you:— This is purely a> business letter. I can get you a much better contract. This does not mean starting the old business oveT again. It is a purely business transaction for inside the theatre only. • • • , wii \ y°t» com© down and eeei me to talk it over. I really want you' aa a partner, because I never -want anyone to dance with me but you. I know all your funny little wayß, and you know mine. u When you said that you did not want _ any of the old btasiness over again," did it not mean that it would not be as lovers ? —No. , there is a letter written in July, 1919, in wTiidi you say, "I have juat heard that yott and Maggie hare parted." Did that not mean that vou had heard that the engagement Between Mr Yates and Miss Dickinson had been broken off ?—No; that

wa» trrittan. after,'Mr ysMicson lu.d told me that they were not going; to dance t-ogether again—t"hat they had bean separated. Do you suggest that you were heartbroken over this business ? —I was. Yet you made a theatrical game of the ciwe on the stago night after night':—(lndignantly) NO,l did no thing of the kind. Does "not Mr Cannot say just after he give* you a stage kiss: "You promise not to sue me for breach of promise-' V No ;Mr Cannot's lines are—" You won't tell the missus." Mr Cannot gags all the time, and has different gag* every night. So far as I can remember. Mr Cannot only made one reference to it on the stage, and that was the day after the announcement j of the insua of the writ had appealed in the papers. If Mr Cannot gags on the stage, I cannot help it. Defendant, in the course of his evidence, paid he first met tho plaintiff in Paris. Plaintiff and ho stayed at tho same hotel. She asked to be put at the same table with him, and was put there. They had j very pleasant conversations. Intimacy arose between them, following on plaintiff leaving notes for him saying that if he had nothing to do when* he came back from the theatre he might come to her room. This was in 1914. She never reproached him, as sho had stated iu Juno. 1917. for flirting with other women, and he did not then promise to marry her; neither was thero any converastion between them then about marriage; that subject was not mentioned. Jn October, 1918. he told plaintiff of his love for Maggie Dickinson. There was a terrible storm between them. There was a quarrel between him and plaintiff in October, 1918, through' plaintiff having, when he was at Chatsworth, Totts Point, with Miss Dickinson, burst into the room and caused scenes there. Plaintiff asked him whether, in the event of his engagement to Miss Dickinson being broken off. he would promise to marry plaintiff, and he said if his engagement with Miss Dickinson were broken off he would not really care what happened. He therefore promised that in that event he would marry plaintiff. She asked him to write a letter to that effect that she might take away to America for her oirn satisfaction. He skid he would do so. As he did not know whether it was to be worded as a business transaction or otherwise, he asked how it should be started. She said, "Put Dear Daisy." He set that down, and then wrote the promise straight ahead. Then she asked him, "Will you take your Masonio oath to marry me?" He said, "I swear on my Masonic oath," and wrote that. Then ho signed the promise. This action was brought out of pure revenge. Do you put it to the jury, however, that she is your rejected mistress, and is doing this cut of revenge ?—Defendant. I do. And you put it to them that from the first time you met in Paris the plaintiff tempted you, invited you ?—She did invite , me. Do you po?e as an innocent young man who was seduced by a girl older than yourself ?—I do not"; <I say Miss Yates started our intimacy. And you reluctantly consented ?—No. But you do not suggest that she forced you —No ; she sought my company. And, according to youi when you went to England with her she was vour mistress ?—Well, I hate the word "mistress." I was not keeping her. Do _ you think your mother received plaintiff as your mistress or as the voung lady you intended to marry?— She accepted her as my dancing partner, and in no other way. Defendant said the only money he had was £lO in the bank. He had rio income except his salary of £lO per week. Mr Justice Mann summed up in defendant's favor. .He said that he did not think that any man who was anxious to delay his marriage would give the reasons alleged oven if those reasons existed. It was put by the plaintiff that the defendant had written a letter in which he swore that lie would marry the plaintiff if anvthing went wrong w'ith her arrangement's Defendant, however, said that the promise was conditional upon something going wrong with his arrangements—that was to say if he did not marry Miss Dickinson. The document seemed to" bear the defendant out. In assessing damages they had to take into account all matters detrimental to the plaintiff, such as the humiliation caused_ her and her lessened chance and value in the "marriage market." After a retirement of two hours, fh« jury returned into court with a verdict for the plaintiff. Damages were assessed at £SOO. A verdict in accordance with the finding was entered, with costs.