FALSE IMPRISONMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 292, 7 December 1923, Page 5

FALSE IMPRISONMENT.

[ SHOPWOMAN AND FIRM.

CHIEF JUSTICE'S COMMENTS,

LONDON, December G.

The Lord Chief Justice and a special iury heard Mrs. Abbott's claim for damages against Messrs. Garroulds, drapers, of Edgware Road, for false imprisonment, and trespass. The plaintiff complained that while she was an employee of Garroulds she was called to the office and questioned by detectives about a theft of two rolls of silk. Although she told all she knew the deteetivee did not believe her, and made her accompany them to her flat, which the detectives ransacked. The defence was that the firm was not responsible for the manner in which the police carried out their duties. Detective Harney declared that the plaintiff invited the detectives to search her flat if they thought the stolen property was there. The Lord Chief Justice, summing up, said that if the plaintiff's story was true she was treated with cynical disregard of her dues. Her rights had been invaded, and her dignity grossly affronted. It was a case in which the jury, if jt chose, could award substantial damages, and make it plain to the defendants that they were guilty of conduct no British i jury would tolerate.

The jury awarded the plaintiff £000, and judgment was given accordingly. An application for stay of execution was refused.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.)