SUPREME COURT

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26513, 30 August 1951, Page 3

SUPREME COURT

DIVORCE PETITION HUSBAND AWARDED £5OO DAMAGES After a retirement of five minutes, a jury in the Supreme Court yesterdayfound that adultery had been proved on the petition of John Lindsay Barr, a wool presser, for divorce from Nella May Barr on the ground of adultery, John Devlin, a railway employee, being named as co-respondent. The jury also awarded the petitioner £5OO damages against the co-respondent, the full amount of his claim.

Mr J. G. Leggat appeared for the petitioner, and Mr D. I. N. Mac Lean for the respondent, but the petition was not defended. Barr, in evidence, said he and his wife had seven children, whose ages ranged from 11 years to one year. In June. 1948, Devlin, who was an Irish immigrant, went to the house as a boarder. Last year, when he returned home from a brief trip to Wellington, he found that his wife had gone away with Devlin. They lived at Takaka add then Wellington. Now Mrs Barr and Devlin were living at Dunedin as man and wife, and Mrs Barr had given birth to a child, Devlin being shown on the birth certificate as the father. His Honour said there were two Issues before the jury—had adultery been committed, and if so, what damages should be awarded? As to the former, the evidence was all one way and the respondent and co-respondent had not appeared to deny it. Damages should not be punitive though the jury might feel the man Devlin might be visited by heavy punishment for the dreadful wrong he had done the husband, and, indeed, the woman too. The claim for £5OO did not seem extravagant, and it was one the jury should have no difficulty assessing.

When the jury returned their verdicts, Mr Leggat moved for a decree nisi for the petitioner. A decree nisi was granted, to be moved absolute after three months. The petitioner was granted interim custody of the six eldest children, and the respondent interim custody of the youngest. The co-respondent was ordered to pay the jtetitioner £3O costs, with witnesses' expenses and disbursements to be fixed by the Registrar.