STATEMENT MADE TO CONSTABLE

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22103, 27 May 1937, Page 9

STATEMENT MADE TO CONSTABLE

♦ Plea of Privilege Not Accepted DOCUMENT PRODUCED AT COURT'S ORDER (PBBS3 ASSOCUTION TELEGRAM.) AUCKLAND, May 26. Holding that no grounds on which privilege was claimed had been put forward, Mr Justice Callan in the Supreme Court ruled that an unsigned statement made to a police constable should be produced in evidence during the hearing of a claim for £2OOO, brought by a farmer against a sawmiller for the loss of the plaintiff's wife in a motor accident. Mr North, for the defence, called Superintendent Till, of Auckland an' asked him to produce a statement made by the driver of a motor-car to a police constable. Superintendent Till claimed privilege, saying that ne had been instructed to do so. The statement was not signed, and the maker of 't was not a party to the action. His Honour: Well, Superintendent, with regard to your point that the statement is not signed, I take it that what counsel is endeavouring to prove is something said to the constable by the person who did not sign the statement. If the constable could remember what was said, I would rule that he could give evidence. The further point that the person making the statement is not a party to the action before the Court makes no difference. Who is your superior officer who has given you instructions to claim privilege? Superintendent Till: The Commissioner of Police. I have his memorandum here. His Honour said his view was that if privilege was to be claimed, something further from a Minister of the Crown should be before the Court. The grounds for the making claim Jn the State's interest should be set out. Although not expressing an opinion whether the claim for privilege was sound or not, his Honour said he did not consider, in view of the method by which the claim was made, the Court should take any action at all. The grounds on which it Was based were not placed before the Court, and he would rule that the statement should be produced. Superintendent Till then handed the document to Constable Huckstep, who had taken the statement, and who used ft portion of it in evidence.