NOT SUSTAINED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 156, 3 July 1936, Page 14

NOT SUSTAINED.

ALLEGATION OF COPYfNG. WIFE'S CLAIM FAILS. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Thursday. In a' reserved decision, Mr. Justice Blajr gave judgment for Percival Mahon JBnOpker, , .statute annotator, against wlio'm a claim for £500 damages for alleged breach of copyright, and an injunction, was made by John Friend, .'Ltd:, stfttutc-.anuotators, of Wanganui. His Honor held that there was no evidence to' sustain the allegation of copying. Allegations that her husband, from whom she was separated, committed a breach of the Copyright Act. 1909, by "wholesale reproduction" of law annotations carried out by her company, were made in the Supreme Court at Wellington on June 25,- when Mrs. Ethel Holmwood Brooker, head of John Friend, Ltd.. of Wanganui, proceeded against l'crcival Million Brooker. It was stated that Mrs. Brooker carried on ail annotating business formed by her first husband, Mr. John Friend, and married defendant in 1931, after engaging his services in 102 S. When Brooker was dismissed last year he started in opposition and the action was taken over annotations for the Justice Department. The company was called upon early this .year to annotate some volumes for the "Justice Department, volumes which previously had been annotated by Brooker, and for 1932 and 1933 a marked similarity was found between his work and that of John Friend, Ltd.

. Mr. Parry, for defendant, said the action was the culmination of a long series of disputes between Brooker and his wife, some of which had been aired in various Court proceedings.