A BROKEN ENGAGEMENT.

Otago Witness, Issue 3803, 1 February 1927, Page 68

A BROKEN ENGAGEMENT.

AUCKLAND, January 24. A sequel to a broken engagement in which it was stated a man offered the girl £5O if she would release him from the contract was heard in the Magistrate’s Court, when Mr J. W. Poynton, S.M., gave judgment in the case in which Doreen Mary Burke, of Onehunga, claimed £25 from Charles Robertson Brown, school teacher. a “The defendant,” said the Magistrate, was engaged to plaintiff, but he found they were unsuited, and asked to be released, offering her £5O in consideration. He says she verbally agreed, but asked him to put the offer in writing. He wrote it out in the form of a promissory note tor £5O. The offer was made in May last, but she wrote declining the offer and asking for £25 more. The matter dragged on, but the offer was never revoked or withdrawn.” . The Magistrate said that on August 12 Miss Burke wrote accepting the offer of £5O, whereupon defendant offered £4O down and two instalments of £5 each. She now sued him on the original promissory note as for £25, five months’ instalments at £5 each. The defence was that: (1) The offer was not accepted when made and her declining it ended the matter; and (2) the claim was not in the form required when a promissory note is sued upon. “I think this is a case where section 92 of the Magistrate's Court Act (the equity and good conscience provision) should be applied,” said the Magistrate. “He submits that he suggested the payment for a release and swears there was nothing unworthy in the girl’s conduct that made him desire it. Why,-then, does he refuse to pay the amount? Probably if she sued him in a higher court she would get more than the amount he suggested and promised to pay her. He savs it was her subsequent attitude that caused him to withhold payment, but that is no excuse The defendant refers to the feeling displayed toward him in plaintiff’s correspondence, but a woman's feelings to a man who has broken off an engagement tor no reason but his own desire to be released are not likely to be cordial. If some temper were shown it should make him all the more pleased that the affair was ended.” . Judgment was given for £25 and costs in equity and good conscience.