TWELVE PORK chops were lost when a husband and wife came to blows in a Nelson Street city bar.
The war of words spilled over into the District “A” Magistrates’ Court where not even Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant could get them to make up yesterday.
Tony Mervin Toppin, a 49-year-old mason of Lewis Gap, Green Hill, St Michael, had confessed to assaulting his wife Rose-Marie Toppin occasioning her actual bodily harm and damaging a glass case belonging to her on November 18, this year. In that glass case were the 12 pork chops.
The court had heard Toppin, who operates a bar in the City with his wife, had given the woman $700 to pay rent. However the woman went shopping and, on her return her husband asked her about the money.
An argument ensued, which escalated into a scuffle and Toppin beat the woman about her body.
However, Toppin said that he got frustrated when the woman decided to leave the shop at its busiest time.
He explained he got up early that morning, turned on the stoves and started preparing pudding and souse for sale.
Then he started on the pork chops, all the while tending customers and working in the bar, only to realise that his wife had decided to leave.
“She just get up and left and I told her she just can’t leave when the shop busy because I can’t work the bar, do the souse and tend customers at the same time. I just get frustrated,” he said.
But the woman, who took the witness stand yesterday, declared her husband was a liar and said he had been drinking all that day. That, she said, was what occasioned his assault on her.
The two have been married for five years.
Magistrate Cuffy-Sargeant then told the two both of them were to blame for the incident – the wife for leaving at the busiest time and the husband for hitting the woman.
She told the man if his wife always left when the shop was busy, he needed to assess his wife’s actions because, maybe, they reflected her feelings for the business and their marriage.
But she made him apologise.
“You know the old saying, ‘Happy wife, happy life?” she asked.
“I promise I will not do it again once you tell me where you are going,” the husband said but was stopped by the magistrate.
“No, that makes it sound like unless she tells you where she is going that you will do it again and she is not obligated to tell you where she is going. Your wife is your equal partner in the marriage,” the magistrate told him.
The two later disagreed about how much it would cost to repair the display case and how many pork chops were in it. He said four, she said 12. They also quibbled on how much money the wife had put towards its reconstruction, with the man saying his wife had given him $200 while she said $225.
In the end, Toppin agreed to compensate his wife for the damage to the display and for the 12 pork chops.
He is on $2 000 bail and returns to court on December 8.
“Wait on your husband,” Magistrate Cuffy-Sargeant called after the woman as she left the witness stand.
But those words fell on deaf ears as the woman declared “I done with you, too” and hurriedly left her husband behind. (HLE)
