LIBEL ACTIONS.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19888, 27 March 1930, Page 11

LIBEL ACTIONS.

BRITISH NEWSPAPERS AS DEFENDANTS. (TWITES FBCaS ASSOCIATION—BT UIuSIO TELEGRAPH—COPTBTGHT.) LONDON, March 25. In connexion witli the libel action brought "by M. Barbu Joßescvr against the "Evening Standard/' the defendants lodged an appeal, but announced : i n Court to-day that they would con- ' sent to its dismissal with costs, and expressed regret at the annoyance caused to M. Jonescu. A similar action against the "Daily Express" has been settled, defendants paying a sum in compensation and giving an indemnity for costs. Defendants' counsel stated it was now recognised that the source of the information which inspired the articles alleging that M. Jonescu was not a Rumanian, but a Pole, was "something worse than merely unreliable." After a. 13 days' hearing in February before the King's Bench, the Rumanian, Barbu Jonescu, who was Prinoe Carol's host during his stay in England, was awarded £12,000 in the libel case against the "Evening Standard," which had alleged that his name originally was not Jonescu, that he was not really a Rumanian but a Pole, and that he went to England with Belgian refugees during the war time. • Jonescu's counsel said that he was respected and prosperous until the allegation. Thereafter people regarded him as an imposter, which .resulted in his bankruptcy. Lengthy > evidence, . much of it being on commission, was brought from Rumanifa to support the declaration that the plaintiff's name always had Jonoscu, and that h 6 was born in 1885. A plea of justification was entered for the defence, which alleged that the plaintiff's name was Moritz Lieba, that he. was born in 1891, and that his father was of Polish descent. The costs of the case were estimated at £2u,UUU. * FARTHING DAMAGES AWARDED. (Received March 26th, 11.45 p.m.) SYDNEY, March Ernest Edward Judd, who claimed £IO,OOO damages for alleged libel agkinst Sun Newspapers, Limited was given a verdict for a faring. ' The claim was based on reports and 1 Statements made during the North Sydney election, campaign. Mr ■ _uaa stood for that electorate as a Nation-