The Divorcee, the Second Promise, and the $20,000 Suit
Annye Brockman says her ex-husband pledged to remarry her, lived with her for years, then wed another woman.
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.
Not satisfied with one experience as the wife of Charles Brockman, Annye Brockman, his divorced wife, is now suing her former husband for $20,000 damages for the violation of a promise to marry her the second time. The suit was begun in the superior court by John B. Hon, the attorney for the plaintiff. The complaint sets forth that the parties were married in Seattle October 10, 1892, and divorced in December, 1896; that thereafter the divorced husband proposed a second marriage, and under the acceptance of that proposal and contract, and pending the fulfillment, the parties lived together for several years as man and wife, meanwhile accumulating a large amount of property, estimated to be valued at upwards of $60,000. But the defendant violated his promise and last October married another woman.
“Not satisfied with one experience as the wife of Charles Brockman, Annye Brockman, his divorced wife, is now suing her former husband for $20,000 damages...”
Breach-of-promise suits were once a legal remedy for women when marriage doubled as an economic contract. The Brockman case—years of cohabitation, a pledged remarriage, and a disputed $60,000 estate—reads like a modern palimony or relationship-contract dispute dressed in Edwardian clothes.
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