BREACH OF PROMISE

Taranaki Daily News, 17 August 1933, Page 5

BREACH OF PROMISE

MAN OFFERS HALF HIS MONEY.

WOMAN AWARDED £4OO.

That a defendant made a definite offer to give a woman half his money if she would consent to release him from his promise to marry her was a conclusion reached by Mr. Justice Avory in a case at Kingston, Surrey, last month. The judge gave judgment for £4OO for Miss Mabel. Daley against Lome Neville Carr-Dickinson, against whom she had brought an action for breach of promise of marriage.

Miss Daley, in her evidence, said that she was a nurse, but was now working in a confectioner’s business at Cove, Hampshire. Mr. Justice Avory decided the case oh the question whether there was a binding contract between the parties that defendant should pay plaintiff £4OO when the engagement was broken off, and said that there was no. question of facts to be determined by the jury, as the breach of promise had been admitted. Counsel for Miss Daley said that she met defendant, an engineer, in October, 1931, when she was nursing his aunt, , and they became engaged in December. In October, 1932, defendant wrote complaining of the prevalence of ment.

The letter added: "I cannot guarantee employment or guarantee my life. If anything happens to me it would mean a dog’s life for you and a millstone round your neck. If you still think of marrying me after my stipulation, enough money must be saved without my spending my shares. If you decide to keep single and would rather not marry, I will hand you half of xny highest paying shares, which is half my. money, so we shall both have something behind us.” ■ . •

Miss Daley replied: "If you think it is better for me to remain single, as you say it will be a millstone round my neck if I marry you, apparently you do not care for me as much as I thought you did. Therefore, you say you will hand over half of your highest paying shares, which you say is half your money. If you think it is best we should not marry, I will accept your very kind offer of money, and we will part.” "I STILL HAVE MY JOB.” Counsel said that further in the same letter Miss Daley wrote: “It has been a blow to me. If you do not want me, thank God I have still my job to go back to.” In another letter to Miss Daley defendant wrote that he had. lost E2CO “over this cursed conversion scheme,” leaving him £BOO, and he wanted her to have £4OO of it.. There was an interview between the parties on October 26, when defendant said that he made his offer of £4OO in a temper, and was not prepared to carry" it out. He made an offer of £l5O, but this Miss Daley refused. Miss Daley gave evidence, and was asked in cross-examination, if she did not know that, apart from about £lOOO securities, defendant had nothing at all, and was dependant on his mother while unemployed. Miss Daly did not reply, and the judge remarked, “There are a good many people worse off than that.” Defendant said he was unemployed when he met Miss Daley. At the interview she said, “I have got you cornered over breach of promise,” and he replied, “If that is your attitude you won’t get anything. You are simply out for what you can get. We will go on. as we are, and, unless something very out of the way happens, I will marry you in a year or two years’ time.”

ANOTHER GIRL RECEIVES £BO.

Having in the course of a breach of promise action heard at Sunderland, described George Masterman Birrell, aged 28, ’bus conductor, of Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, as “a miserable creature," Judge T. Richardson ordered him td pay £BO damages to Miss Gertrude Irene Chapman, aged 26, of Sunderland, at the rate of £3 a month.

For Miss Chapman counsel stated that the parties became• engaged in August, 1928, and the match was broken off by Birrell early this year. In her evidence, Miss Chapman said that when she passed Birrell in the street without speaking she did not deliberately intend to cut him. She was not ashamed of him in a uniform.

“Don’t you think it was best to break it off when he discovered it was not going to be a happy marriage ?” inquired counsel for Birrell. “He did not give me any explanations as to why he broke it off,” Miss Chapman answered. “I have wasted all my years and lost my faith in men.” She added that she still loved Birrell. Judge Richardson: After all these years he has shown himself up rather badly. He is a miserable creature. Counsel: Some mistaken idea has got into his head that Miss Chapman was ashamed of him. The Judge: I don’t believe that. It was an excuse. Before his decision, His Honour remarked that he did not know whether he ought to award any damages at all, as he thought Miss Chapman well rid of Birrell.