NONSUIT REFUSED.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 43, 30 November 1937, Page 6

NONSUIT REFUSED.

ACTION FOR ALLEGED LIBEL. CLAIM FOR £2OOO DAMAGES. (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. A ruling that the occasion had been one of qualified privilege, but a privi lege that could be destroyed by proof of malice, was given by the Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers) in the Supreme Court to-day after a motion foi a nonsuit in the libel action for £2OOO damages brought by the New Zealand National Creditmen’s Association (Wellington), Ltd., against Dun’s Agency (Wellington), Ltd. and Huia Holiepa Dimond, manager of the agency. For the defence, Mr O’Leary moved for a nonsuit on the grounds that the wards were incapable of the defamatory meaning of libel, and consisted of fair comment, and that the occasion was one of qualified privilege. The Chief Justice held that prima facie there was evidence of malice, in asmuch as the motive of defendant was to benefit itself. He provisionally overruled the application for nonsuit. Yesterday several accountants of large city firms gave evidence of com plete satisfaction with the work ol the legal department of the Creditmen’s Association. More than 200 of the 325 subscribers had availed theiiisejves of the legal department’s activities without a single complaint. The taking ol debtors to Court was only done as a last resort. The case is proceeding.