The Price of Liquid Hospitality
A gambling debt turns sour when a gambler sues for the return of bail money he fronted for a friend who lost it all at the dice table.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
This was an action brought by George McRae against E. C. Slorah to recover on a promissory note. It seems that back in May, Slorah went to Victoria on an excursion. While Slorah was enjoying the freedom of the city, he imbibed a little too much of the liquid hospitality offered on all sides, and in the course of time was brought up in the police station. McRae, learning of his friend's confinement, deposited $100 of good hard money, and Slorah walked forth a free man. Slorah's confinement had made him very thirsty, and McRae was not behind him in that aspect. After a large amount of stimulants had been imbibed, the worthy pair found themselves in a saloon shaking dice. The dice god had no smile to waste on Slorah; she was busy beaming on McRae. Slorah lost his money and borrowed $150 from McRae to win it back, eventually signing an I.O.U. for the total debt, including the $100 bail. When the note went unpaid, McRae brought suit. Judge Osborn, noting the pair came into court with 'stained garments,' ruled that since the money was borrowed for a gambling debt, the contract was illegal and against public policy. He dismissed the case, leaving the parties where he found them.
“The parties have come into a court of justice with stained garments, the hands of the plaintiff seeking redress are far from clean, and the court will leave the parties where it found them.”
Courts have long struggled with the concept of 'unclean hands,' where judges refuse to enforce contracts born from illicit activity. While the venue here was a 19th-century Seattle saloon, the civic tension between 'public policy' and private bad decisions remains a cornerstone of modern contract litigation.
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