The Opelousas courier., 1904-04-30
CoURTiNC AND IN COURTS
s to Be
Breach
=, g:
How Easy 1t
Made Liable in
Of Promise Ca

de- Aant, for she recovered a judy
mI ss35or $500.
Vermont case the plaintiff and
were neighbors, and the de-
SSe's CIT paid neighborly visits to the
' rfasiset4f's faTily. 1t was shown that
I LID tyisits91ere at first to the entire
tand mf. an\That they were gradually
MT we'd uftil they were confined to
MALTA. tintiff lone. This fact, togeth-
. DOTH the : roof that during the Pc
I've drea9f the defendants visits lights
: : grass caexequehtly seen burning in the
Saturday and Sunday even
SEar. COLI some other circumstances,
sNAer. inIRAry to find for the plaintiff.
IN the EESsruel case occurred in Mich:-
glsce. aNpan, who, strange TO relate,
bore rarevhame of ConStar,T While ell
gagedsetcourting had his financial eye
| open an, borrowed money from the
lady. On Ms last visit to her he re-
newed his F9es for one and two years,
ala then e. off and married the
other girl. > sTS7AAcourt held that it was
AprOper to az SsSprOOf Of TINS money
kstra~nsaction, hTS%SssAfgg that IAN engage
S3nent broken ores Suddenly and without
warning would weak naturally create
.&more pain and modification than if
under any other. circumstances,
md if a jury We're to ~ fard this con-
.Iuct concerning money ,{HSsYters as cal
Eulated, under the circ1 {NsSancesSt to
lave caused additional gr1 us of pa N
Il grievance to the Gefen ut in Ell
IRr, We think they would R,tnAb be vio-
lHting ordinary probabilitics!t-
fINhere the defendant asked , \ hand
| G2 the lady in the presence of'!Xe lat
t6bs mother, who consented, n the
lady said nothing, and tie deleN sQnt
thepeupon gently took the hand WE
mother and touchingly said: HE'S \
forth consider me as your son." it wa /
hello ,Suf1cient proof Of the lady's con-
sente,tAnd in a New York case the lady
was I.Srmitted to show that she had
procur|NH a wedding dress and had gone
so far Rs to get a wedding cake, as
shoWinAher acceptance, while in Iowa
the plat Ntiff was allowed to prove in
support tf her acceptance that she was
making preparation for her marriage
''piecing quilts and doing fancy work.
and that when she heard of defend
ants marriage, "she hated it awful
bad"
While the law makes it easy to prove
a proposal by the gentleman and equal
- A. Lj,oA 4Eo 1oc7- 1aa,+a
when it comes to evidence showing 4
release on the part of the lady, then the
proof must be strong to sustain the de-
Tense.
In one case a bachelor of ffty-three
had been paying his respects to a
maiden Of forty-three summers for the
unlucky period of thirteen years. Dur
ing all this time she declared to 9TH
ers that she would never marry him
and spoke of him in terms Of derision
and contempt. After thirteen years
Of courtship the bachelor summoned
sufficient courage to propose and was
promptly accepted. After the engage
ment he heard of the double dealings
of the maid and refused to marry her.
The court held that it was 10 defense
to the action, although it might so to
mitigate the damages.
In a Pennsylvania cas- the lady
wrote the defendant a letter in which
she said: 81 don't want you, for |
know that I would have a devils life
of it. II you were any kind of a gen
tleman you would not act as you have.
[ pray night and day that you may
never prosper in this world. l just
pray for every hair in your head to
come out" And yet she recovered a
judgment for $4,000. 2
In looking beneath the surface for
the reason for this verdict it is quite
evident that the jury believed that the
lady was goaded to desperation by the
attentions Of her fiance to her rival,
and that she did not, in fact, mean to
say that she did not want to marry
him, and did not really desire that he
lose all his hair, for in her letter she
says cruelty Of her rival: "Well, If l
am poor / do not wear the one hat for
five or six years like she does, and
: turn it hind part before, like she does"
, Under the weight Of authority, then,
If a party does not want to find him'
self, in the eyes Of the law, an en-
: gagged man, he must look well to his
daily walk and conversation; for, If he
has so conducted himself as to be
e estopped from denying the engage
. ment, he will have a difficult problem
y to convince a judge and jury that the
lady has duly released him.-From the
- Crnnn Par