A STRANGE STORY

Waikato Times, Volume 96, Issue 15041, 14 September 1922, Page 5

A STRANGE STORY

WOMAN'S CLAIM FOR £llß9.

By Telegraph.—Press Association, CHRISTCHURCH, Wednesday.

A case in which a woman made] extraordinary charges of deception | against a man with whom she had lived for 13 years, and who died recently, came before the Supreme Cofart, when Emma Frances ; Lewis sued the Public Trustee, as administrate!' in the estate of Edward Elliott, for £llß9. • Counsel for. plaintiff said she met Elliott in Dunedin. He bought, her a ring and said they were married. The story, said counsel, seemed absurd and utterly unbelievable in fact, but the plaintiff was not normal, and was illiterate and ignorant. She and Elliott worked together in the • country as a married couple, and finally took a small farm at Bexley, near. New Brighton. She not' only worked on the farm, but worked outside, and gave all her earnings to Elliott, who demanded them. When taken ill Elliott said he wished to leave everything to plaintiff and a boy, but before the will was drawn up he died. V ■

Plaintiff said she understood she was deceased's wife, and that he, was an unmarried man. About six months before his death she learned that he had all along had a wife in England, and that the boy referred to was his son. She.was allowed 6d per week, and did not have a new dress while they lived together. Cross-examined, she said she did not know what took place at the marriage ceremony. \ The hearing is proceeding. _