28 Feb 1920 - Jury Returns Verdict in Five Minutes in Action Brought by Financier. DECREE WILL COME LATER - Maids Testified That Husband Entertained Modiste and Nurse in Wife's Absence. It took a jury in the Supreme Court less than five minutes yesterday to return a verdict for Mrs. Margaret Carrere Reid for a divorce from Daniel G. Reid, financier. The suit brought by Mr. Reid against his wife. She filed a counterclaim, and when he abandoned his charges it remained only for the jury to determine whether the testimony of maids in the Reid apartment at 907 Fifth Avenue concerning visits there of Mme. Georgette, a modiste, of 9 East Fifty-sixth Street, and of Miss Irene Corbett, a nurse, was sufficient ground for a decree. The evidence and decision of the jury will go before a Supreme Court Justice for confirmation and a decree will be granted. The decree will not make any provision for the support of Mrs. Reid, in view of the fact that when the couple separated last Spring they made an agreement by which Mrs. Reid go $200,000 outright and $30,000 a year. Although the charges against Mrs. Reid were not pressed she was called to the stand to deny the allegations that she was guilty of improper conduct with Captain Sampson Tehernoff of the Serbian Army in New York and San Franscisco last April. Justice McAvoy in his charge to the jury directed them to return a negative answer to the question as to whether she had been guilty of the conduct alleged in the complaint.
Acted as Own Model.
Edmund L. Mooney, attorney for Mrs. Reid, read into the record the deposition of Amanda Gunnison, personal maid for Mrs. Reid, taken last December, in which she said Mme. Georgette became a caller at the Reid apartment to show Mrs. Reid articles of lingerie, and that on these calls she usually met Mr. Reid also. On one of the visits Mrs. Reid went to the theatre and left the modiste there, the maid said. While she was showing the garments to Mr. Reid the maid heard him ask if she "had brought any models," and the modiste replied: "No, I prefer to be my own model." The modiste then displayed a transparent petticoat for Mr. Reid, the witness said. Miss Gunnison testified concerning a week's visit of Mme. Georgette to the apartment in December, 1918, while Mrs. Reid was at Atlantic City, concerning which Tillie Olson, a maid, testified on Thursday. She said that Mme. Georgette directed the butler, James, to summon a hairdresser and masseur, because she wanted to "make herself presentable to Mr. Reid." She told of a telephone call from Mme. Georgette the first day of the week's stay, in the course of which the modiste said she wanted the bed in the "blue room" prepared for her because she intended to sleep "in exactly the same place where Mrs. Reid sleeps."
From Illness to Merriment.
Miss Gunnison said she was summoned one day to attend Mme. Georgette, who appeared to be hysterical and said she was ill. The maid suggested calling a physician but the modiste said, "No, call Mr. Reid." Mr. Reid came in his dressing gown and the modiste threw herself in his lap, the witness said. The maid then made up the bed at Mr. Reid's direction. "When I left she was sitting on his lap with her arms about his neck and was laughing." Miss Gunnison explained a quarrel with the modiste by saying, "I was hired a personal maid for Mrs. Reid and I did not consider it my duty to wait on Mr. Reid and another woman." Vivi Sandstrom, a waitress, corroborated the testimony of the two maids and told how Mrs. Reid ordered the modiste from the house when she returned from Atlantic City and found her there. In summing up his case Mr. Mooney said: "I can imagine no worse instance of insensate brutality than where a man makes charges in a divorce action and fails to press them." W.M.K. Olcott, for Mr. Reid, retorted that the financier showed rather a chivalrous spirit in deciding to permit his wife to get the divorce if her testimony warranted it, instead of annoying her with the charges against her.
