Garmong v. Henderson

95 A. 409, 114 Me. 75, 1915 Me. LEXIS 17
CourtSupreme Judicial Court of Maine
DecidedOctober 6, 1915
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 95 A. 409 (Garmong v. Henderson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Judicial Court of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Garmong v. Henderson, 95 A. 409, 114 Me. 75, 1915 Me. LEXIS 17 (Me. 1915).

Opinion

Savage, C. J.

This is an action for breach of promise of marriage. The plaintiff recovered a verdict for $116,000. The case comes before this court on the defendant’s motion for a new trial. The plaintiff in her writ alleged a promise on March 10, 1910, and another on November 6, 1910. And she testified that such promises were made. The defendant denies that he ever promised the plaintiff to marry her. And further he pleads, and relies upon as a bar, the unchastity of the plaintiff prior to the date of the first alleged promise, and between that date and'the date of the second alleged promise; and that, pending the first alleged promise, she began two [77]*77criminal proceedings against one Roscoe D. Smith, one before a justice court in Iowa, and another before a grand jury, wherein she charged upon oath that she had been seduced by Smith under promise of marriage, during the period between the two alleged promises. The evidence is voluminous. The extent of it precludes any attempt to analyze it minutely in an opinion. It will suffice to state only the substance of so much of it as seems to be material and important.

The plaintiff is a native of Iowa. There, in school, she became acquainted with Roscoe D. Smith. He became her lover, and they were engaged to be married. In 1907 she came to Baltimore to pursue medical studies. The defendant was and is a resident of Washington, D. C. In 1909, when their story began, he was a widower with one child. At that time they were respectively about 29 and 39 years of age. In June or July, 1909, they casually met at a gentleman’s residence near Washington where she was visiting. On that occasion he took her on a short automobile ride. A day or two later he called at the residence of her aunt in Washington, where she had informed him by telephone she was staying, and left for her a medical book which they had talked about at their first interview; but he did not then see her. About that time she says he took her on an automobile ride in and about Washington, during which he told her that he loved her, that he was coming to Bar Harbor, and that he urged her to visit him at Bar Harbor. This he denies. But at any rate, in July she came to Bar Harbor without informing him that she was coming. After getting there she notified him by telephone of her presence, and within a day or two he called upon her at her boarding place. They were in each other’s company more or less for several weeks. They disagree as to the times of meeting, and the extent and nature of the acquaintance. But it is not questioned that he took her to ride one or more times, that they walked together, and that once or twice they went sailing in his motorboat. She says that he caressed and kissed her, and talked love to her. This he denies. At one time she was accused of larceny. She referred to him as her friend, and he was sent for. The property alleged to have been stolen was subsequently found in a room adjoining hers, and the matter dropped. He gave her money for her expenses. She says it was a loan. He says she asked for a loan [78]*78large enough to cover the expense of going to. Des Moines, Iowa, where her parents lived. He ascertained the probable expense, and let her have the money. After leaving Bar Harbor she went 'first to Scranton, and then, three weeks later, to Philadelphia, where she remained four or five months, serving as nurse for an old gentleman who was ill. During that time she says that she visited the defendant three or four times in Washington at his suggestion and at his expense, being with him at various places, and that he called upon her once in Philadelphia. In February, 1910, she went to Washington, and lived for a time at her aunt’s house. On several occasions the parties met. They rode together in his car, and dined together at one or more hotels. At one time they went to Baltimore in each other’s company, returning the same night. In March, she says the defendant definitely promised to marry her sometime during that year. This he denies.

About the first of April, 19x0, the plaintiff went to Des Moines. She soon met Roscoe D. Smith. On July 6. she made complaint on oath in a criminal proceeding against Smith, alleging that “on or about June 15, 1910 and 4th of July, 1910,” he had seduced her under promise of marriage. Smith was arrested and put into jail. She did not appear on the day set for hearing the criminal proceeding, and prosecuted that no further. About the same time she began a civil suit against Smith for breach of promise of marriage, with an allegation of seduction. Attempts were made by Smith and his father to settle the civil suit, liability in which does not seem to have been denied. The witnesses say that a certain considerable sum of money was agreed upon for a settlement, but that she refused to sign a receipt or release, and so the settlement fell through. She admits being at meetings where attempts were made for a settlement. We think the overwhelming weight of the evidence compels the finding that she did agree to settle for a definite amount. Though she refused to sign a release, she still insisted that Smith was the father of her unborn child, and that he would have to take care of her and it. Upon the failure of the settlement she even attempted to get into the wagon of the elder Smith to go home with him for the avowed purpose of being .taken care of. But an officer was called, and she was prevented. In the meantime, she wrote to the defendant informing him that she was in the family way, and asking for help. [79]*79Replying, July 16, he offered advice and financial aid, which latter he subsequently furnished to the extent of $100.

On September 21, 1910, the plaintiff appeared before a grand jury in Iowa, and testified on oath that she had been engaged to marry Roscoe D. Smith, that he had had sexual intercouse with her soon after the first of April in that year, that she was in the family way by him, that she had submitted to the intercourse on the strength of his promise to marry her, that she had asked him to fulfil his promise, and that he had said he would go to the penitentiary first. Upon this testimony, in November the grand jury returned an indictment. against Smith for seduction. It does not appear that he was ever put upon trial.

The plaintiff returned to Washington the very last of October, 1910, and on November 6, she had an interview with the defendant at Hotel Driscoll, where she was staying. She charged him with the paternity of her child and she says that she told him that in order to protect him from any violence she had brought suit against one of her friends who had seduced a nurse at the hospital, that he, the defendant, expressed himself as under great obligation to her, and that they then and there agreed to be married sometime in the earlier part of the next year, the date not being then definitely fixed. Two days later she gave birth to a child at a hospital to which she had gone under an assumed name. The defendant visited her at the hospital one or more times, and she says gave her fruit and flowers. After-wards they met, once in a hotel parlor, and at other times by appointment at various points on the streets of Washington. After the birth of the child and prior to March, 191T, he gave her about $900 in money. The defendant denies any promise of marriage after she returned from Iowa. He denies that she told him her proceedings against Smith in the criminal courts. He says that before that time he knew that she had brought a civil suit against Smith, or contemplated doing so.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
95 A. 409, 114 Me. 75, 1915 Me. LEXIS 17, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/garmong-v-henderson-me-1915.