NEW TRIAL ORDERED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20249, 8 May 1929, Page 14

NEW TRIAL ORDERED.

;CASE OF ALLEGED ASSAULT.

REMITTED TO MAGISTRATE.

[BY TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] HAMILTON. Tuesday. A new trial was ordered by Mr. Justice Blair, in the course of a reserved judgment given in the Supreme Court at Hamilton to-day, in the case in which William Francis de Malnanche (Mr. Mackersey) appealed against the decision of the magistrate in the Taumarunui Court in a case for damages arising out of an assault. The respondent was I?. 51. Dunn (Mr. Hall). His Honor said the appeal was on fact nnd law. Appellant sued respondent for £l2B 6s damages for assault, and judgment was given in favour of respondent ■without costs., Appellant undoubtedly sustained fairly severe injuries, two of his ribs and also his nose having been broken.

His case was that Dunn came on to appellant's property, pulled him off his 3torso and brutally assaulted him when he was encumbered by an overcoat pulled over him by respondent. The motive suggested was bad feeling, owing to some suggestions of stealing stock. The magistrate had said there was a conflict of evidence, the respondent's case being that appellant was the attacker, and that there was only one blow struck by the respondent. The parties then clinched and rolled among some logs. If the magistrate had accepted this version there was no reason to deprive respondent, of his costs. His Honor said he would abstain from commenting on the evidence, and would remit the case to the magistrate for the purpose of a new trial.