BREACH OF PROMISE.

Waikato Times, Volume 117, Issue 19606, 19 June 1935, Page 7

BREACH OF PROMISE.

CLAIM FOR £SOO DAMAQES. JUDGE AWARDS £25. “MORE MERIT THAN MOST.” (By Telefrrapli.—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, Tuesday. A claim for £SOO general damages and £3O special damages for alleged breach of promise to marry, brought by Elsie Preston, spinster, of Bluff, against Stephen Allen Ilagerty, picture theatre manager, of New Brighton, was heard at the Supreme Court today by Mr Justice Northcroft. Counsel for the plaintiff said that two years ago Miss Preston became acquainted with Hagerty, and later they became engaged. Plaintiff at that time was a clerk in a picture show at Bluff, ami Hagerty was working at Win ton. Later Hagerty came to New Brighton to manage a picture show there.

Last winter tilings actually came to a climax, said counsel. The wedding date had been fixed for September, wedding invitations had been printed and plaintiff bad purchased a trousseau at a cost of £ 10. in August Hagerty wrote suggesting that tho wedding be postponed. Late-r lie asked that the engagement be broken off, saying that he would pay for the trousseau. No Sinister Conditions. The statement of the defence denied any agreement to marry, or Liiat Miss Preston had always been willing to marry Hagerty. ! The Judge, in giving judgment, said that this class of action was rarely meritorious. "Gases of this kind,” lie said, “arc usually brought for extortion or for punishment, but this case does seem to me to have a little more merit than most of its sort.”

11 is Honour held that there had been an engagement, but that it had been broken off for the proper reason that the man had lost his affection for the woman. There were no sordid or sinister conditions lo justify exemplary damages. He assessed damages at £25, with costs on the Magistrate’s Court scale.