A Broken Heart, Then a Wedding: Port Townsend's Breach-of-Promise Plaintiff Marries Again
Mary E. Bellinger sued James Craswell for $10,000 over a broken engagement; now, while the appeal is pending, she has married Albert E. Stevens of Vancouver, B.C.
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.
The celebrated breach of promise suit of Mary E. Bellinger, of Port Townsend, vs. James Craswell, a wealthy Canadian, which occupied the attention of the United States district court in this city several months ago, has taken a peculiar turn, as the fair plaintiff a few days ago was one of the parties to a license to wed issued by Auditor Twitchell a few days ago. Albert E. Stevens, of Vancouver, B.C., is the man who gets the broken heart which Miss Bellinger told the jury had been injured $10,000 worth. It will be remembered that the jury allowed her 10 per cent of her estimate and the case is now in the United States court of appeals. The Port Townsend Leader, commenting on the late development, says: 'The San Francisco courts, where the suit is still pending, will now have to deal with the perplexing question whether Mary's heart was whole when she gave it to Stevens and if it was not, whether Mary or Stevens should get the damages, and if it was whole, whether Craswell can be made to pay damages for a heart that is not broken. This is a queer world when you go to court.'
“This is a queer world when you go to court.”
Breach-of-promise suits were a 19th-century tabloid staple, letting juries price a woman's hurt feelings. The Bellinger case—sued, won, appealed, then married while the appeal was pending—reads like a modern celebrity legal saga, with the added twist that the damaged heart had apparently recovered.
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