MAGISTRATE’S COURT

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25249, 30 July 1947, Page 3

MAGISTRATE’S COURT

TUESDAY (Before Mr Raymond Ferner, S.M.) SUSPENDED SENTENCE Pleading guilty to a charge of stealing an overcoat valued at £5, belonging to Phyllis Edna Clotworthy, a seaman and tractor-driver, Wilford Moore, alias Wilford Lawrence Moore, aged 24, of Dunedin, was convicted and ordered to come up for sentence if called oh within 12 months. Detective-Sergeant A. A. Herron said that accused had gone to a dance at Auckland on January 4 this year, and at the end of the dance had taken the coat. He had only one previous conviction for theft, au.d had just been released from prison. Moore explained that he had been in a hurry and had taken the coat by mistake. He discovered that he had taken the wrong coat later, and had told his workmates; but it was not until five days later that he saw a policeman and had the opportunity to return it. He had not recovered a sports. coat which he left at the dance. TRAFFIC BREACHES Offenders against the traffic regulations were fined as follows, unless otherwise stated:— Exceeding Speed Limit.—Peter Frank Douglas Dyer, £2; James Douglas Gibson, £2; Rodrick McDonald, £2; John Adcock, £2. Failure to stop when requested: Eric Roy Rump, £2 (no light on cycle, 20s). Parking over time limit: Leonard Malcolm Hawes, costs; William Albert Henry, 10s; Maurice Kenneth Lawson, 10s; Wilfred John Martyn, 10s; John Arthur Roberts, 10s (no warrant of fitness, 10s). Insufficient lights: Cyril Benjamin Goslin, 20s. Parking in prohibited area: Wilfred James Hughes, convicted and discharged; Alexander Robert McLean, 10s (no driver’s licence 20s); Neil Heath Proctor, 10s; Nigel Paora Robinson, costs. Parkipg without lights: Edward Borick, 10s; Francis Dennis Cantwell, 10s; Daniel McGlinchy, 10s; Ivan Douglas Rae, 10s. Incorrect parking: Noel R. Chambers, costs; David Moffat, 10s; Nina Hall Moore, 10s; Jean Margaret Norbett-Munns, 10s. Failure to dip lights: Arthur Burke, 10s; Morgan Seyb, 20s. Ineffective silencer: Ross Morton Bassett, 10s (no warrant of fitness, 10s). No driver’s licence: Francis B. Barnes, 20s (no warrant of fitness, 10s). No warrant of fitness: Horatio Robert Bell, 10s; Ivan Robert Hooker, 10s; Owen Michael Quinlin, 10s. No light on cycle: James Burgess, 20s; Colin John Hill, 20s (no warning device, costs; no rear reflector, costs); Frank Edwin Hooper, 20s: Theo Ramsay, 20s; William Douglas Rawlings, costs; Clifford Cecil Moore, 20s. No L plates on motor-cycle: George McKay, 10s (carrying passenger, 10s; insufficient lights, costs). No white mudguard: Robert Henry McKeown, costs (no rear reflector, costs; no warning device, costs). Carrying more than two persons on motor-cycle: Mervyn Watson, 20s. CIVIL CASES (Before Mr H. P. Lawry, S.M.) ORDERS FOR POSSESSION An order for possession was granted when D. M. Whitmore and A. L. Gardner (Mr W. F. Tracy) sought possession of a house at 2 Dallington terrace occupied by C. L. Williamson (Mr N. H. Graham). Possession is to be given in one week. An order for possession of a house at 30 Pratt street, Redcliffs, was granted to D. F. Closer (Mr G. G. Lockwood) from J. A. O’Neill (Mr N. H. Graham). Possession is to be given on or before September 9, 1947. DAMAGES AWARDED Damages amounting to £2O were awarded to Ellen Winifred Ives, a spinster (Mr T. A. Gresson), . against Horace Stanley Papps, a farmdr (Mr J. A. Johnston). In the statement of claim for £25, plaintiff, the owner of a section in South Brighton, alleged that Papps or his agent, in August, 1946, had removed sand and coverings from the property, thereby depreciating the value of the land. After a fire at the property. Miss Ives said, she had gone to inspect the damage. She noticed that the sand from a hill on the property had been levelled off. The section was of a type that was particularly valuable, its value arising from its height. Questioned by Mr Johnston, Miss Ives said she thought the section was the highest in South Brighton. John William Hulme, a land agent and salesman, of New Brighton, said he had not seen the contours originally; but in his estimation the market value of the section before the removal of the sand would have been £65. Now it was worth about £45.

The driver of the bulldozer had inquired about the boundary of the section, but unfortunately it did not extend as far as he was told by the occupier of a neighbouring section, said Mr Johnston. The only question of damages could arise from the difference in market values before and after ’ the work of the bulldozer.

Frank Parris, a land agent, said that the back of the section had never been high. The amount of sand taken out had been negligible. He did not think • the value of the section had changed in the last 12 months, and placed its value at £45 to £5O.

Horace Stanley Papps said that when he found that the bulldozer was working on land which did not belong to him, he stopped it immediately. At no time was there a high hill at the back of plaintiff’s section. He knew the area of his own section, but did not know how far back 32 perches extended. The driver of the bulldozer, George Turner, estimated that only 50 yards of sand was taken from Miss Ives’s property. In his opinion this had not affected the section as a building site. In awarding Ives the damages, the Magistrate said it was not a case of the value of the property, but a case of interference with ano-ther person's property. JUDGMENT BY DEFAULT Judgment for plaintiffs by default was given in the following cases:—New Zealand Shipping Company, Ltd., v. H. Lynch,

£4O 2s; Cyril G. Tansey and Son, Ltd., v. E. W. Lett, £l7 4s lOd; Edward Sibbald Sears v. Merville Baker, £43 15s; Westport Coal Company, Ltd., v. L. Gibb, costs only; Earthenware Drainpipe Company v. C. H. Dohrman, £23 17s 6d; Ashby, Bergh and Company, Ltd., v. H. W. Reid, £3 10s.