The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1905-03-09
THE GREAT WHITE PLAGUE
JUDGE OF SUPERIOR COURT
ORDERS Ex-FIANcEE TO
ANSWER QUESTIONS.
Judge Aiberton Declares State Should
Pass Laws to Prevent Unsound
Progeny.
Judge Aiberton Declares State Should

his or her offspring, then it is against
public policy for suoh marriages to be
permitted and no person should be
mulcted in damages who breaks A
promise he has made to marry such
an affected person. That was the opin-
ion rendered by Superior Judge AL
bertson at Seattle recently in passing
upon motion to strike out certain in
terrogations propounded in a suit to
Rosena E. Grover by Mayor Zook of
Ballard in which the young woman
seeks to recover from him $25 900 dam
ages for breach of promise
In the answer filed by the mayor he
admitted that ne had promised to
marry the woman and would have done
SO had he not discovered after the
promise was made that she was affect
ed with tuberculosis.
The question before the court was
novel one, raised, possibly, for the
first time in the United States. Has
party to a promise to marry, a right
to refuse to fulfill the promise if he or
she discovers that the other party has
consumption? That was the question
that Judge Albertson was called upon
to decide directly in passing upon the
interrogatories. The main object of
the latter was to discover whether or
not the woman has tuberculosis.
The Courts Words.
The court at the outset stated that
unless the averment made in looks
answer that the woman had tubercu-
losis was a legal defense in a breach
of promise suit the answers to the pro
posed interrogatories would be clear
ly immaterial and therefore the court
would not compel them to be answered.
The court declared that in the marriage
contract three parties were concerned
the man, the woman and the state.
The state had right to prevent any
marriage which would be dangerous
to it. If it could be shown that the
Zook would result in the production of
progeny which would be affected with
a disease transmitted directly from
either or both of the parents, then in
the opinion of the court the state, on
the ground of public policy, had right
to prevent the performance of the mar
riage contract. In the opinion of the
court it would be inequitable for dam
ages to be assessed against a person
for refusal to keep a promise to enter
into marriage that would be against
public policy.
AS to whether tuberculosis was such
an infectious disease that by the mar
riage of a person affected with it the
disease would transmit itself to
sound person or the curse of it would
spread to the issue of the marriage,
that that question should be left for
Jury to decide after hearing expert
testimony upon the subject. IT, how
ever, they found it was such a disease
then the court intimated that the party
breaking contract to marry because
of the diseased condition of the other
could not be mulcted in damages.
Some of the Questions.
On the ground that an infectious
disease likely to be transmitted to
children is a good defense in a breach
of promise suit the court ordered the
following interrogatories to be
answered so as to provide Mayor Zook
with information necessary to his de-
tense:
Is it not a fact that you are afflicted
with pulmonary tuberculosis?
Since your engagement to the de-
PENDANT. have you been afflicted with
pulmonary tuberculosis?
When were you first afflicted with
tuberculosis?
When did you first discover that you
were afflicted with pulmonary tubercu-
losis?
Did you notify the defendant that
YOU had resumption; if so, when and
where did you notify him?
Is there a hereditary faint of tuber-
culosis in your family?
Why was it that you refused to wait
until you got well and recovered from
vour disease for the performance of
the marriage?
Were you afflicted with pulmonary
tuberculosis at the time you engaged
Yourself to the defendant and promised
to marry him?
Is it not a fact that the first time
the defendant learned that you were
afflicted with tuberculosis was when
your mother wrote to him from Arizo-
ma that your bronchial trouble had
turned out to be consumption?
Did you know that your case had
been reported by DIR. C. L. Smith and