NAVAL DESERTER SUED.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLVI, Issue 10532, 23 October 1925, Page 3

NAVAL DESERTER SUED.

PLAINTIFF OBTAINS DAMAGES. (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, October 22. Mr W. G. Riddell, S.M., in his reserved decision, delivered to-day, in the cabaret case, Campbell v. Miller, in which the proprietress of a city cabaret claimed £SO damages from S. L. Miller, a deserter from the United States warship Oklahoma, gave judgment for plaintiff for £lO. Plaintiff engaged defendant and six others as ai band of musicians to play at her cabaret in Wellington at a salary of £SO pei- week. The agreement provided that plaintiff could terminate the service of the band or any of its members on seven days’ notice, but the members of the band could not terminate their engagements under three months’ notice. Defendant and others, members of the bands, were deserters from the United States Navy. Defendant entered plaintiff’s employment on August 29 and left on September 21 without notice. Defendant pleaded infancy as a special defence, and that the contract was void because it was a contract to employ seamen who had deserted from a loreign ship and was, therefore, a breach of Section 349 of the Shipping and Seamen Act, 1908. The Magistrate held that defendant had not proved that he was under 21. There was no proof that plaintiff had induced defendant to desert from his ship, but she knew he was a deserter. However, the provision of the Act dealing with deserters from foreign ships was not -applicable in the case of a naval deserter.