Pollock, C. B. The case of Grinnell v. Wells, 7 Man. & G. 1033, is precisely in point. That case decided that an action for seduction cannot be maintained without proof of loss of service. Tindal, C. J., in delivering the judgment of the court, says: “The foundation of the action by a father to recover damages against the wrong-doer, for the seduction of his daughter, has been uniformly placed from the earliest time hitherto, not upon the seduction itself, which is the wrongful act of the defendant, but upon the loss of service of the daughter, in which service he is supposed to have a legal right or interest.” The rule must be absolute to enter a nonsuit, unless the plaintiff will consent to a stet processus.
Alderson, B., Rolfe, B., and Platt B., concurred.
Rule accordingly.[[564]]
EVANS v. WALTON
In the Common Pleas, June 11, 1867.
Reported in Law Reports, 2 Common Pleas, 615.
The first count of the declaration stated that Louisa Evans was and still is the servant of the plaintiff in his business of a publican and victualler; and that the defendant, well knowing the same, wrongfully enticed and procured the said Louisa Evans unlawfully and without the consent and against the will of the plaintiff, her said master, to depart from the service of the plaintiff; whereby the plaintiff had lost the service of the said Louisa Evans in his said business.
Pleas: Not guilty; and that Louisa Evans was not the servant of the plaintiff, as alleged. Issue thereon.
The cause was tried before Pigott, B., at the last Spring Assizes at Oxford. The plaintiff was a licensed victualler in Birmingham, and was assisted in his business by his daughter Louisa, a girl about nineteen years of age, who served in the bar and kept the accounts. On the 10th of November, 1866, the daughter, with her mother’s permission, which was procured by means of a fabricated letter purporting to be an invitation to her to spend a few days with a friend at Manchester, left the plaintiff’s house and went to a lodging-house in the neighborhood of Birmingham, where she cohabited with the defendant, at whose dictation the above-mentioned letter had been written. On the 19th of November the daughter returned home, and resumed her duties for a short time, but ultimately left her home again, and on the 9th of February was again found cohabiting with the defendant at the same lodging-house.
On the part of the defendant it was submitted that, in order to sustain the action, in the absence of an allegation that the defendant had debauched the plaintiff’s daughter, it was necessary to show a binding contract of service.
The learned Baron, after consulting Blackburn, J., intimated an opinion that the action would lie upon the declaration as framed; but he reserved to the defendant leave to move to enter a nonsuit if the court should be of opinion that in point of law the action was not maintainable,—the court to have power to draw any inferences of fact, and to amend the declaration if necessary, according to the facts proved.
The case was then left to the jury, who returned a verdict for the plaintiff, damages, £50.