CLAIM REFUSED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 115, 16 May 1936, Page 17

CLAIM REFUSED.

QUESTION OF PRIVILEGE. OFFICIAL AS A WITNESS. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, Friday. • Privilege was claimed by a Government official in the Supreme. Court today, ■when he was asked to produce documents, hut it was refused by the presiding Judge, Mr. Justice Northcroft. Witness, an official of the Labour Department at Ashbiirton, was asked to produce statements made by an applicant for sustenance, but he claimed that the documents, being State confidential documents, wore privileged. In the absence of a certificate from the Minister of Labour, and because it appeared that one party in the action already knew part of the contents of the statements, His Honour ruled that the statements must be released. The applicant for sustenance referred to was John Henry White, labo\irer, of Ashburton, and the action was a claim by White for £lf)00 as general damages and £220 as special damages and medical expenses, against Hugh Joseph MeCoskcr, farmer, of Ashburton. White was injured in a collision between a motor-truck ]i 3 was driving and a car driven by defendant on July 2, 1935. Defendant admitted liability, and the Court was asked to assess the amount. Claimant suffered a fracture of the thigh, and had been in hospital for two periods. He now suffered some perman ont disability, one leg being one inch shorter than the other. In cross-examination, he admitted having made incorrect statements to the sustenance officer about his earnings in order tfoat he might draw sustenance. Several doctors gave evidence. Two of them said claimant's working life, if he had met no accident, would have ended in ten years. It was stated also that he would be able to do normal duties in eighteen months' time. The jury awarded £550 as general damages and £205 as special damages.