Scottish Court of Session Decisions

This was an action of damages for breach of promise of marriage. It appeared that at Whitsunday 1855, the pursuer, a domestic servant, entered the service of the defender's father, an innkeeper, and continued in that service until Whitsunday 1857. During that time the defender resided with his father, and the pursuer alleged that about two months before Martinmas 1855 the defender made her an offer of marriage, which she accepted. From about June 1855 to Whitsunday 1857, the pursuer alleged, the defender continued to court her, and, for several years after she left the service of the defender's father, the defender continued his attentions to her, and repeatedly talked of fulfilling his promise of marriage. The pursuer proposed this issue:—

“Whether, between the month of September 1855 and the month of May 1857, both inclusive, the defender promised and engaged to marry the pursuer? And whether the defender has wrongfully failed to implement the said promise, to the loss, injury, and damage of the pursuer?”

The defender objecting to the issue, the Lord Ordinary ( Barcaple) reported the case with this note:—

“The defender objects to the latitude of time in the issue in regard to the promise of marriage, on the ground that it is set forth in the record (condescendence 3), as having been made about two months before Martinmas 1855. Though the statements on record are not very clearly expressed in this respect, the Lord Ordinary is disposed to think that they import a promise and engagement, reiterated and kept up during the period from about two months before Martinmas 1855 until the pursuer returned to her father's house at Whitsunday 1857. In this view of the record, he thinks the issue need not be restricted to the point of time first mentioned.”