CAPTAIN SUTCLIFFE AND THE STEWARDESS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 21, 25 January 1901, Page 2

CAPTAIN SUTCLIFFE AND THE STEWARDESS.

Captain Sutcliffe no doubt thought when a special jury, at the direction of the late Lord Chief Justice dismissed the action brought against him by Mrs Mary Katherine Green to recover damages for mutilation of a certificate of discharge given her as stewardess of the New Zealand Shippin"- Co.'s Aorangi, tha,t he had heard the° last of the matter. But Mrs Green was not satisfied, and last ■week she applied to the Court of Appeal for.a new trial. Your readers will remember perhaps that at the first trial the plaintiff stated that in 1890 on her return to England from her second voyage on board the Aorangi, a certificate of discharge was given < to her not containing any words as to her good character, and with the edges torn.' This, she said, was known in the mercantile marine as a sign that the person named in the certificate was not fit tobe employed at sea, and that in consequence she had since been unable to obtain employment as a stewardess. For the defence, Mr TafFs, of the Board of Trade, stated that the certificates of discharge were filled up from the log book and the articles, that the Board of Trade officials were xesponsible for the tearing off of the corners of the certificate in question, and that it was their practice to tear off the corners in cases where the captain had declined to report, as Captain Sutcliffe did. The Court of Appeal dismissed Mrs Green's application, the Master of the Rolls stating that the view of the Lords Justices Collins, Sterling and himself was that the plaintiff had failed to show any reason why there should be a new trial.