The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1916-01-13
My Most Important
Law Case
By JOHN Y. LARNED

My most important law case? If you
mean the most important case to me
individually, 1t was a case Of breach
of promise. 1t was case where a
woman sued man for refusing to
keep a contract Of marriage and to
settle on her at the same time 100000.
The strange feature was that the man,
| who was madly in love with the plain
| tiff, was as madly DESTROYS to marry
, her. but claimed that he hadn't the
100000 to give her.
My first Interpretation of the case
was that the woman was trying to
bleed a man without having ever had
any intention to marry him; my Sec
ond was that she had passion for
getting men in love with her. Fitz
Mooney, the defendant, in a. written
appeal for Kate Jackson, plaintiff, to
marry him, had agreed to settle $780,
600 on her If she would do so. He had
at the time made twice that amount
on the Stock Exchange, but had lost
it all. For some reason that the lady
kept to herself, knowing that he was
unable to keep the financial part of
his contract, she sued him on the
agreement.
Kate Jackson was widow, not es-
pccially good looking, but possessing
magnetism over men that enabled
her to do what she pleased with them.
She came into my Office stranger to
me, offered me her case, and was
convinced from the first that she was
simply DESTROYS Of annoying Mr.. FItz
Mooney, though what was her object
in doing so could not imagine. There
was nothing to be got out of him, and
l convinced her Of the fact-if she
was not convinced already-but she
insisted on proceeding with the case.
Since l was then struggling to gain
practice and with poverty at the same
time, l consented; but not before the
lady had paid me 500 retaining fee.
was soon sorry that had accepted
it. I had spent it. was unable to
get rid Of my client by returning it.
Never have I had such an annoying
case. Mrs. Jackson did not give me
her confidence, and was continuously
in doubt as to what she was driving at.
Instead of my managing the case for
her she was managing the plaintiff
through me. Her ground Of action
was that she had declined several Of
fers of rich men to accept the de-
PENDANT, that he had won her affec-
lions, her other suitors had been mar
ried, died, disappeared or failed to pro-
pose again. She had thus been depriv-
ed Of pick Of several fortunes. She
proved these assertions by showing me
love letters from these parties, and on
inquiry I learned that they were rich
men. What l did not learn was that
they were not still available as hus-
bands.
Half dozen times had the case
ready to be tried, and every time some
thing occurred to cause delay. Once
the plaintiff, who was always specu-
lating, having made $4,000 in wheat,
offered to settle it all on her and marry
her as well If she would accept the
compromise. She peremptorily declin-
ed. The money was soon lost In cop
per, and my client to my surprise seem
ed suddenly mortified and showed signs
Of dropping the suit. I foolishly show
ed her letter from the defendant, who
was getting worn out Us was with the
case, upbraiding her, whereupon she
turned square about and demanded the
whole amount for which she had sued,
asking me If she could not double the
claim.
Meanwhile my bills for services and
costs were growing. The widow paid
my bills promptly, but the costs went
on accommodating. I reminded her that
she would probably lose in the end,
getting, if anything, nominal award
and would have to pay the court as
well as my professional fees. But this
did not stagger her in the least. The
was coming on, and she went
into the country, whence reports came
that she had enthralled every man
who came near her. I was in hopes
that she would be shared herself and
drop her case against Fitz Mooney. No
such good luck. The last week in Au-
gust she wrote me that she would re-
turn Immediately otter Labor day and
desired that I would be ready to bring
her suit to trial as soon thereafter as
possible.
But when she returned a change had
come for Fitz Mooney. He had sunk
a lot Of money in cotton, and on wind
ing up his deals the account showed
that he owed his broker $4,000. This
was not all. His troubles, largely his
affairs with the widow, had broken
down his health, and he was lying
very i'll in a hospital.
1 Such was his condition when the
plaintiff sailed In to my Office and ask
ed me If 1 was ready to try his case.
replied by giving her brief account
of Fitz MONEYS misfortunes, adding
that I feared he would die before we
could get judgment.
"Oh, my goodness graciousy' was the