Bowie v. Trowbridge
Supreme Court of Iowa
Appeal from Carroll District Court. — M. E. Hutchison, Judge. Action for damages for breach of promise of marriage, and for services rendered decedent during his lifetime. Both parties appeal.
1DissentSalinger, J.
(dissenting). — While being afflicted with a loathsome venereal disease is suffered to be a complete defense to breach of promise, it has been understood always that this rests on a narrow exception engrafted upon the law of contracts; understood that such exception is not worked by tenderness to the defendant, but by reasoning, that it will be a less evil to permit him to take advantage of his own wrong than to press him into a marriage which will offend public policy. The majority has extended the exception to what is not within the reason for the extension — to pernicious anemia, which,…
2Cases cited17 opinions
- Taylor v. TaintorSupreme Court of the United States · 1873
- Spalding v. . RosaNew York Court of Appeals · 1877
- Fenton v. ClarkSupreme Court of Vermont · 1839
- Allen v. . BakerSupreme Court of North Carolina · 1882
- Luse v. DeitzSupreme Court of Iowa · 1877
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