Pratt

This is an appeal by the defendant from a judgment for fifteen hundred dollars for the alienation of the affections of plaintiff’s wife.

The only points raised on the appeal are upon the rulings of the court in the admission of evidence. [1] Exception is taken to the introduction of certain letters written by the defendant to plaintiff’s wife, a number of which were intercepted by the husband before their delivery through the mails to the wife, and also to the admission in evidence of the wife’s testimony. Appellant’s brief is very meager in elucidating his points, and there is no brief for respondent.

We think the letters were relevant and competent evidence. They, it is true, not having reached the wife, could not have been influential in diverting her affections from her husband, although they were fervently directed to that end. However, the defendant, for defense to the action, had pleaded and attempted to prove that he was the victim of a conspiracy and that the woman had tempted him. These letters were calculated to show, by their ardent declarations and admissions, that he was, and for some time past had been, by no means a passive agent in the love-making, and tended to…