CITED IN DIVORCE CASE

Opotiki News, Volume III, Issue 319, 4 October 1940, Page 4

CITED IN DIVORCE CASE

WOMAN CLEARS HER NAME CONDUCTED HER- DEFENCE LONDON, March 2. Mrs., Doris Sophie Munn, cited in a divorce suit, conducted her own defence yesterday and spent two hours cross-examining the wife who cited her.

So successful was Mrs. Munn's defence that the Divorce Court president dismissed her from the case.

The wife, Mrs. Catherine Mary St., John, asked-for a decree nisi against her husband, Captain Geoffrey Robert St. John, cousin and heir-presumptive of Viscount Bo-fing-broke and St. John.

When Mrs. Munn was dismissed from the suit, Mrs. St. John was granted a decree nisi because of her husband’s misconduct with another woman named as Dagmar Chesson.

Mrs. Munn is a dark-haired woman with a beautiful voice. She is an inventor, with more than 20 patents —connected with chemicals, rubber, coal. “I did not know anything about divorce court procedure,” she said after the case. “The judge was very kind and fair to both sides. The registrar helped me and told ine when to put in the various documents.

“Once the judge said to me, “That’s a good point.” “I went to hear several divorce cases a few days ago, so that 1 could get the atmosphere, and see what happened. “I have hardly slept since. When I have I have wakened-up at night to find myself addressing an imaginary judge. “My business has been badly hit by the war, and I could not afford counsel to defend me, so I thought I would do i£ myself. Happily Wed "I have been happily married for 26 years, and. I live for my husband and two sons. The boys are both serving now —one in the Navy and the elder has a commission in the R.A.S.C. “My husband had a good job in India, and was earning £3OOO a year. I had everything I wanted. Hh was so generous to me that it was difficult to persuade him to or-

der a new suit for himself. “Then his health broke down completely. . “Eventually I got him to England. We went to Scotland and stayed with his people.

“I then decided to coinc to London to get a job, and borrowed £5 from my husband. “I was so simple that 1 thought you had only to apply for a job to get one.

“I soon found my mistake. I could not get work. “At that time I was staying at an. hotel in London, and asked a friend to lend me her kitchen. I prepared some apples in a novel l way, that is something between crystalised apple and jam. “I called on the director of a big West End catering firm. He asked for half'a dozen for a board meeting, and the nCxt day received a cheque for 50gns. asking for the recipe exclusively for England. “With this money I went to Paris and sold the idea there using other fruits. Soon my £5 became £2OO. This gave me my first real capital. “I have been able to send both my boys to public schools. “Inventors so often forget the cost of manufacture and the demands on the market.”