Wendt v. Lentz

• Decision Date: 08 January 1929
• Citation: 222 N.W. 798,197 Wis. 569
• Parties: WENDT v. LENTZ.
• Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court

197 Wis. 569

222 N.W. 798

WENDT

v.LENTZ.

Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

Jan. 8, 1929.

Appeal from an order of the Circuit Court for Dodge County; C. M. Davison, Judge.

Action by Fred C. Wendt against Charles Lentz.From an order overruling a demurrer to the amended complaint, defendant appeals.Reversed and remanded, with directions.--[By Editorial Staff.]

Action begun August 15, 1927; order overruling demurrer entered May 2, 1928.Seduction.This action is brought by the father of Marian Wendt, a girl 15 years of age, to recover for loss of services and for shame and mortification alleged to have resulted by the seduction of the said Marian Wendt by the defendant, Charles Lentz.The material allegations of the amended complaint are as follows:

“1.That at the time hereinafter mentioned, one Marian Wendt was the servant and daughter of the plaintiff.

2.That on or about the first day of October, 1926, and at divers dates in the month of October, 1926, at the city of Mayville and vicinity, in Dodge county and state of Wisconsin, the defendant, well knowing the said Marian Wendt to be the servant and daughter of the plaintiff, and wrongfully contriving and intending to injure the plaintiff, and to deprive him of her assistance and service, did, wickedly, wilfully, and maliciously, and without the privity or consent of the plaintiff, entice and persuade the said Marian Wendt to leave the residence and service of this plaintiff, and did then and there take and have indecent liberties with her person, she being then a female child of the age of fifteen years and of chaste character, and did then and there debauch and criminally know her.

3.That in consequence of the wrongful acts of the defendant aforesaid, the said Marian Wendt suffered the loss of her virtue and chastity and became wild and unmanageable from sexual desires aroused thereby, and was shortly thereafter found to be incorrigible by the county court of Dodge county and sentenced to confinement at the Home of the Good Shepherd, near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she must remain during her minority, and the plaintiff has been deprived of her services for more than six months last past and such loss will continue until she becomes of age, and the plaintiff has suffered great shame and mortification, and the honor of the plaintiff's family has been wronged, and the plaintiff's feelings have been ruthlessly lacerated, and the plaintiff has been and was otherwise greatly injured, solely as a result of the wicked, wilful, malicious and wrongful acts of the defendant, as aforesaid, to his damage Fifteen Thousand ($15,000) Dollars.

Wherefore, The plaintiff demands judgment against the defendant for the recovery of the sum of Fifteen Thousand Dollars ($15,000), his damages as aforesaid, together with the costs and disbursements of this action.”

To the plaintiff's amended complaint the defendant demurred on the ground that it did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action.From the order overruling the demurrer, the defendant appeals.Clark & Lueck, of Beaver Dam, for appellant.

W. H. Markham, of Horicon, Hill, Thomann & Beckwith, of Madison, and John Harrington, of Oshkosh, for respondent.

ROSENBERRY, J.

[1] On behalf of the defendant, it is conceded, and we think advisedly, that it is not necessary in order to maintain an action for seduction that pregnancy or venereal disease should have resulted from the intercourse.The following cases are cited as having a bearing upon this question: Klopfer v. Bromme, 26 Wis. 372;Stewart v. Smith, 92 Wis. 76, 78, 65 N. W. 736;Knight v. Wilcox, 14 N. Y. 413;Jex v. Straus, 122 N. Y. 293,...