BREACH OF PROMISE CASE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 255, 28 October 1939, Page 8

BREACH OF PROMISE CASE

£5000 DAMAGES CLAIMED I Per Frees Association. I PALMERSTON N„ Oct. 27. Allegations of breach of promise to marry were made in the Supreme Court by Hilma Kathleen Polson, of Wellington. The defendant was James Lawrence McMillan, of Palmerston North, building contractor. Miss Polson claimed £5000 damages. Plaintiff alleged that on May 15. 1924. there had been an agreement to marry and she had always been ready and willing to marry McMillan, but the latter neglected and refused to marry her. Instead, on November 22. 1937, he married Dorothy Sutton, of Palmerston North, a picture theatre usherette. In his statement for the defence, McMillan denied that plaintiff was always willing and ready to marry him.' Further, at the time of the alleged promise defendant was already a married man and the marriage was not dissolved until October 20, 1937; therefore, if he made any such promise (which he denied) the promise was illegal and void as being against public policy. Further, if the plaintiff proved she did not know that he was a married man at the time of the alleged oral promise in May, 1924, then she knew he was a married man a few weeks later and so the action was barred by Statute limitation. Still further defence was that if the circumstances of the relationship between them were such as to imply an agreement by the parties to marry then the plaintiff, by her conduct in the years 1935-37. absolved the defendant from any such obligation on his par 1