SUIT BY HEIRESS FAILS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19099, 21 August 1936, Page 14

SUIT BY HEIRESS FAILS

ALLEGATION OF MAIMING CHARGE AGAINST DOCTORS (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 19. Superior Judge Tuttle dismissed the charges of criminal mayhem against two physicians for the alleged steiilisation of Ann Hewitt. The judge held t hat they acted in good faith on the instructions of the mother. He also held that evil intent by the mother was not proved. A civil damage suit by the daughter against the mother is still pending. Claiming that she had been denied the right of motherhood bv an illegal sterilisation operation, Ann Cooper Hewitt, a 21-year-old heiress, on January <! last filed an amazing damages suit for £IOO,OOO against her mother, Mrs, Marvond Hewitt McCarter, ail international society woman. The claimant’s father, Mr. Peter Cooper Hewitt, a famous inventor, died in 1921 leaving an estate valued in excess of £2,000,000, twothirds of which would revert to the wife if the daughter died without issue. The daughter alleged that under the pretence of having her appendix removed her mother engaged uvo prominent physicians to perform a sterilisation operation, for the sole purpose of diverting the major portion of the estate to herself. The physicians in question admitted that they performed the operation, but insisted that they did so because the girl was feeble-minded and the mother felt that bearing children would be dangerous to lier health and her morals.