Stone v. Sanborn
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Contract for breach of promise of marriage. Writ dated April 23,1867. Answer, that any engagement or promise of marriage, made by the defendant with the plaintiff, was conditional, and terminable at any time at the option of either party, and was terminated by mutual consent.
Read the full summary
Contract for breach of promise of marriage. Writ dated April 23,1867. Answer, that any engagement or promise of marriage, made by the defendant with the plaintiff, was conditional, and terminable at any time at the option of either party, and was terminated by mutual consent. Trial in the superior court, before Wilkinson, J., who allowed a bill of exceptions substantially as follows: “ The plaintiff testified, in her own behalf, to an absolute engagement being made about June 20, 1864; and offered in evidence, in further proof of the engagement and the violation of the same by the defendant,…
1Opinion of the CourtGray, J.
The contract of marriage, on which the plaintiff' relied to support her action, and to which she testified, was oral. The letters between the parties which were admitted in evidence were not offered by the plaintiff as themselves constituting the contract, but as evidence of the defendant’s admissions that it had been made, and of a breach by his refusal to perform it. The only objections taken at the trial to the admissibility of this evidence were, that the plaintiff had voluntarily destroyed part of the correspondence, or, if she had not destroyed it, refused to produce the whole, and…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Marshall v. MillerCourt of Appeals of Kentucky · 1860
3Cited by8 opinions
- Commonwealth v. HaydenMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1895
- Stagg v. ComptonIndiana Supreme Court · 1881
- Smith v. AbbottMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1915
- Lewis Publishing Co. v. LenzAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York · 1903
- Wiggin v. Boston & Albany RailroadMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · 1876
3 more not listed; retrieve them via the Exa API.