Hodges v. Bales

1 N.E. 692, 102 Ind. 494, 1885 Ind. LEXIS 84
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedJune 17, 1885
DocketNo. 11,777
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 1 N.E. 692 (Hodges v. Bales) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hodges v. Bales, 1 N.E. 692, 102 Ind. 494, 1885 Ind. LEXIS 84 (Ind. 1885).

Opinion

Mitchell, C. J.

This action was brought by Mary M. Bales against the appellant to recover damages for her seduction.

The complaint was originally in four paragraphs. Pending the action an additional paragraph was filed.

Separate demurrers were filed to the first, second, third and fourth paragraphs. The demurrer was sustained to the third and overruled to the first, second and fourth, and the overruling of the demurrer to these paragraphs is the first error assigned.

The objections which counsel make to the first paragraph are, that the means therein alleged are not sufficient to constitute seduction, nor is there any allegation in this paragraph to show that the woman was drawn aside from the path of virtue, which she was herself pursuing, or that she relied upon the means and promises made by the defendant.” The only objection stated to the second is, that it is alleged therein that she was coerced and compelled to submit to the carnal intercourse with the defendant.” All that is said of the fourth is that it is- similar to the second, and that it is bad for the same reasons.

[496]*496In each of the foregoing paragraphs it is averred, in substance, among other things, that the plaintiff is an unmarried woman; that the defendant was her suitor, and by his visits and attentions to and professions of love and affection for her, gained her confidence, and importuned and persuaded her to have sexual intercourse with him, and that she, by reason of her confidence in and love for him, yielded to his importunities, and that pregnancy and the premature birth of twins was the result.

The first and fourth paragraphs each contain, in addition to the foregoing averments, an averment of a promise of marriage, and that by reason of said promises aforesaid, * * and by then and there undertaking and promising to marry,” the defendant seduced and debauched her.

In the second and fourth paragraphs are contained, in addition to the other means alleged to have been used, averments, in effect, that the defendant coerced and compelled her to submit to sexual intercourse with him. It is not averred in either paragraph that the plaintiff was previously chaste, or of good repute for chastity.

An averment of previous chastity, or good repute for chastity, is not essential in a complaint by an unmarried woman for her own seduction. This was directly ruled in Bell v. Rinker, 29 Ind. 267. It was not necessary that the means used should have been more particularly described, nor was it necessary to aver that the plaintiff relied on the defendant’s promises. Hart v. Walker, 77 Ind. 331; Rees v. Cupp, 59 Ind. 566.

That the second and fourth paragraphs contained averments, that, in addition to the other means used, the intercourse was had by means of coercion and compulsion, did not make them subject to demurrer. We agree with appellant’s counsel that seduction can not be accomplished by force alone, but the other averments, with which those objected to are coupled, make a case of seduction. If the arts and wiles set out were employed to gain the plaintiff’s confidence, and her [497]*497consent was finally obtained through persuasion and force combined, we are not prepared to say that this would not be seduction. That it remains uncertain whether the intercourse was had by means of force, or by arts which amount to seduction, or both combined, was not a ground for demurrer. There was no error in overruling the demurrer to these paragraphs of the complaint.

It is assigned for error that the court erred in overruling ■the appellant’s motion for a new trial, and the first point urged under this assignment is that the evidence does not sustain the verdict. It is insisted that if the plaintiff’s account of the matter be accepted as true, it makes a case of rape, and not of seduction.

The substance of the plaintiff’s testimony was, that the defendant had been her suitor; that he solicited her in marriage ; that she had consented; that he had asked her to wait for him; that on account of his mother he could not then marry; that defendant’s mother was an aged, palsied invalid and in infirm health, and that he and his mother composed the family at that time; that he procured plaintiff to come and live with his mother, to nurse and care for her; that soon after she went to care for his mother and household, he came to her bed, in the room occupied by the invalid mother, while she was asleep at night, and carried her bodily across the hall to his own room in her night-clothes; that she resisted, and he compelled her to stay, locking the door, and refusing to let her go. She testified that he tiled to persuade her to yield to him by telling her he would marry her if any trouble resulted; he also told her he would have his brother, Perry, move into the house and take care of his mother, and he would marry her in any event. She refused consent and struggled to get away, and he held her fast. She tried to make an outcry, but could make no one hear. She tried to get his arm loose but could not, and finally, worn out between entreaty and force, she submitted. The plaintiff testified that [498]*498the defendant had intercourse with her on other occasions, and adds, that it was always against her will. The defendant denied having had any sexual intercourse at all with plaintiff.

Over an instruction which told the jury, in substance, that if they believed from the evidence that the plaintiff yielded to the defendant on account of force or coercion, they should find for him, the jury nevertheless found for the plaintiff. We can not say that the evidence does not support the verdict. We do not mean to say that an ordinary complaint for seduc-. tion alone, would be supported by proof of intercourse had under compulsion without any promises or persuasion, such as would constitute seduction, but the complaint in this case, taking all its allegations together, combines an action for damages for seduction with one for assault and battery and resulting injury. Although neither paragraph of the complaint was, on that account, subject to a general demurrer, the "defendant might, perhaps, had he chosen, have required the plaintiff to state her several causes of action in separate paragraphs, but with his consent the whole was tried together, and we think he can not now complain. Assuming the facts, testified to by the plaintiff to be true, she might have maintained an action for the injury in either form. Besides, taking the testimony as we find it, we are of opinion that it supports the charge of seduction, notwithstanding the element of coercion found in the plaintiff’s account of the affair. Taking it as true, that the defendant, as suitor, had won the confidence and affection of the plaintiff; that he had been accepted as her prospective husband; that although carried bodily to and detained in his room by force, his pledges of fidelity to her were then repeated and renewed, we can not now undertake to separate and determine the effect which these promises and persuasions may have had in inducing her’ to yield assent to the wishes of one in whom she confided. Presumably, if no relations of confidence had existed between them, he would have entered upon no such bold adventure,. [499]*499nor would she so readily have become a victim to be carried off in that fashion.

Error is also predicated upon instructions given by the court.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Johnston v. State
155 N.E.2d 129 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1958)
Bird v. Ellingsworth
65 P.2d 674 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1937)
Rent-A-Car Co. v. Globe & Rutgers Fire Insurance
163 A. 702 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 1933)
Rogers v. State
3 S.W.2d 455 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1927)
Continental Insurance v. Bair
114 N.E. 763 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1917)
State v. Maggard
157 S.W. 354 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1913)
Hicks v. State
75 N.E. 641 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1905)
State v. Lauth
80 P. 660 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1905)
State v. Sharp
82 S.W. 134 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1904)
Nevins v. Nevins
75 P. 492 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1904)
Gunder v. Tibbits
55 N.E. 762 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1899)
Cabinet Makers' Union v. City of Indianapolis
44 N.E. 757 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1896)
State v. Hunt
37 N.E. 409 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1894)
Lewis v. State
36 N.E. 1110 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1894)
French v. Deane
19 Colo. 504 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1894)
Hobbs v. State
18 L.R.A. 774 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1893)
De Haven v. Helvie
25 N.E. 874 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1890)
Shewalter v. Bergman
23 N.E. 686 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1890)
McCoy v. Trucks
23 N.E. 93 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1889)
Logansport & Pleasant Grove Turnpike Co. v. Heil
20 N.E. 703 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1889)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1 N.E. 692, 102 Ind. 494, 1885 Ind. LEXIS 84, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hodges-v-bales-ind-1885.