The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-10-29
CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES,

OVNoCdUE EN l1AL DdmnOGo
The law of resulting Or consequential
damages is the least deiiuite of any of the
rulings that govern the courts of the
country in their adjudcations. There is,
and can be, no statutory cnactments that
can at all cover cases of this character.
The precedcnts, to which any new case
may be referred, are conflicting, and all
such cases must be treated As new ques-
tions, and just here comes in the grand
advantage of our jury system. When
the law fails to meet an exigency, very
little common sense will do all the work
required.
Now down in Chemung County, New
York, only last week young lady by
the name of Roberts lost her prospective
husband in this way: Sometime in 1876
DIR. Preston, a dentist, had made her a set
of false teeth. She had been careless
or forgetful and hadn't paid for them,
and the doctor the other day calling on
her asked how hey were suiting her. In
the simplicity of maidenly innocence she
took them out and handed them to him
to examine. That dentist, DR.. Preston,
put the teeth in his pocket and with
cruel coolness Informed Miss Rosa Roberts
that she could have the teeth "when she
paid for them
That very night Miss Roberts fiance
called on her, and she sent word down to
him that she couldn't see him. He in
sisted on knowing the reason why, and
some one of Miss Roberts friends were
kind enough to tell him the prcdicament
his lady-love was in. The gentleman re-
tired in a medtative frame of mind, and
the next morning wrote to Miss Roberts a
busncss-like note, in which he informed
her that when he entered into the con-
tract to marry hcr he didn't expect to
marry fragmenJary woman or one who
patched herself up with false teeth, or
any other illusions that 60 to deceive un-
suspecting manhood, aud he kindly but
firmly declined to marry her in her dis
rupted condition.
Now, Miss Roberts thinks, and she is
so advised by her legal friends, that she
has dauble-barrel action growing out of
this transaction. She has sued DR..
Preston for $4,000 for the loss of hus-
band, growing out of the clandestine
deprivation of her teeth by the doctor,
and for the general annoyance she has
suffered, and she has also instituted
proceedings -- damages at $4,000
against her late suitor for breach of
promise. The resulting or consequential
damages to the girl from the fact of the
doctor taking the law and the teeth into
his own hands have been very grievous
to Rosa, and if her case comes before
jury who have ever pa Used through the
hands of dentist she will have a very
fair show for handsome verdict. But,
as we said before, the law in relation to
consequential damages is still quite un-
settled-as much so as clearinghouse
coffee.
In the suit which Miss Rosa Roberts
has brought against her recreant lover
she has law, justice and common sense on
her side. That man who. when he enters
into matrimonial engagement, expects
to marry perfect woman is fool.
What! is the matter of few false
teeth---a pile of false hair-the dimly
shadowing forth of indefinable charms
at so much pound-blls unsettled
to excuse man from taking the balance
Of the goods? Can such trifes vitiate
contract? The courts will undoubtedly
hold in this as in other similar cases, that
when a man gets substantially what
he has bargained for, a quid pro quo for
his investment, and that no fraud has
been u<ed, excepting such as is by cour-
tesy called justifiable; he must stand up
to his agreement like little man or be
mulcted in damages. II it has come to
this that toothless spiDsters have no dem
tai or matrimonial rights, what did our
forefathers face the jaws of death for at
Bunker Hill or Brandywine? But then
it behooves ladies who, like Miss Rosa
| Roberts. have portable front teeth Or who