BREACH OF PROMISE ROMANCE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 9303, 16 November 1901, Page 4

BREACH OF PROMISE ROMANCE.

RE-TRIAL OF MRS BRODIE'S CLAIM FOR JGoO,OOO. The re-trial has begun at Edinburgh of the claim of Mrs Catherine Brodie, or McEwan, against Mr David MacGregor, a- Glasgow contractor, for £30,000 damages for breach of promise of marriage. In December last a jury awarded Mrs Brodie £5000 damages, but Mr MacGregor appealed on the ground that the damages were excessive, and a new trial was ordered. Mr MacGregor and Mrs Brodie are old friends' Years ago, when Mr MacGregor was a lad working at a Perthshire toll-house, he made the acquaintance of a little school girl who used to pass, to and fro. She grew up, and m 1879 married a son of the late Lord Chief Justice Brodie, of Ceylon. The marriage was unhappy, and ten years later Mrs Brodie obtained a divorce m New Zealand. She is now 43 years of age. R-turmng to Scotland from New Zealand, she began as an artist, calling on people to sell her pictures. In this way she made the acquaintance of a Mr Neilson, and she said that he promised her marriage, and then declined to fulfil the bargain. She claimed compensation from him, and he offered her £5000. At this juncture she went to Mr MacGregor, as an old friend, and he advised her to "stick out" for £10,000. She did, and she got the £10,000. Then, she alleges, Mr MacGregor offered her marriage one day while they were going by rail to Edinburgh, and she accepted him and prepared for her marriage. In March, }899, he wrote declining to mai *ry her. Counsel agreed to regard Mr MacGregory— worth at least £100,000. The case was adjourned.