"VERY EXTRAORDINARY."

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 247, 18 October 1929, Page 9

"VERY EXTRAORDINARY."

EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT.

MAGISTRATE'S COMMENTS.

CLAD! FOR PENALTY PAILS,

"Certainly a very extraordinary position is disclosed." observed Mr. E. C. C'utten. S.M., in the Magistrate's Court yesterday afternoon when giving his decision in the case in which the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners sought a penalty for an alleged breach of the award by the Palmer Ward Construction Company (N.Z.) Limited. It was argued by the plaintiff union that the company engaged three nonunionists;, and failed to notify the fact within the three days specified in the ] award.

Mr. C'utten. in reviewing the evidence, said the defendant company stated that a contract was made with a man named Thorn, who employed the labour for the work concerned, and therefore, was responsible if a breach had been committed. In support of that the defendant company produced a contract made between it and Thom. Notices posted up on the job and general arrangements, however, indicated that the company was carrying out the work with Thom as superintendent.

'"There are some extremely suspicious circumstances about the case," added the magistrate. "It is certainly a most extraordinary thing for a responsible firm to make a contract involving £600 with a man who within the past three years went bankrupt and is still undischarged, without making inquiries into the matter. If this were an ordinary civil action, I would weigh all these facts and come to a conclusion, but, as the action is for a penalty, and the defendant company's conduct is capable of construction consistent with innocence, a penalty cannot be imposed. Judgment must, therefore, be for the defendant company." An application for costs was refused.