SUPREME COURT

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26987, 12 March 1953, Page 7

SUPREME COURT

UNDEFENDED DIVORCE PETITIONS Decrees nisi were granted in the following divorce petitions heard by Mr Justice Northcroft in the Supreme Court yesterday, on the ground stated:— Separation: Maxwell Thomas Wood (Mr D. W. Russell) v. Doreen Rosemary Wood; Myrtle Dqrothy Lewis (Mr A. E. D. Ludecke) v. Robert Algernon Lewis; Olwyn Greta Campbell (Mr H. S. Thomas) v. William Donald Campbell; Winifred Mary Sheahan (Mr G. C. Sandston) v. Vivian Clarence Sheahan; Margaret Gertrude Shackleton (Mr G. C. Sandston) v. Leslie George Shackleton; lan James Paterson Wright (Mr A. Hearn) v. Pearl Amelia Louvain Wright; Catherine Elsie Clark (Mr A. N. Mackay) v. William Garfield Clark; Robert Edmund Bigg (Mr G. G. Lockwood) v. Thelma Bigg; Kathleen Alicia Wyness (Mr E. S. Bowie) v. Raymond Cecil Wyness; Ellen Mills (Mr G. L. Bowron) v. Ewen Charles William Mills; Janet Sophia Boswell (Mr B. J. Drake) v. Richard Laurence Boswell. Adultery: Edith Gertrude Burke (Mr B. J. Drake) v. Stanley Noel Burke; John Arthur May (Mr D. W. Russell) v. Valerie Gay May (William Valentine David Bartlett named as co-respondent); Margaret Joan Fuller (Mr E. B. E. Taylor) v. Roy Francis Fuller; Gordon Daniel McDonald (Mr R. A. Young) v. Ngaire Joan McDonald (Thomas Borland named as corespondent). Desertion: Mavis Muriel Newlove (Mr V. G. Spiller) v. James Henry Newlove; Clifford William Edward Trott (Mr R. A. Young) v. Irene Elizabeth Trott. Failure to comply with an order for restitution of conjugal rights: Roger Shepherd Duff (Mr K. A. Gough) v. Deirdre Duff. Order for Restitution An order for restitution of conjugal rights within 21 days was made in favour of Percy Lorraine Glasson (Mr H. S. Thomas) against Daphne Norah Glasson. COMPANY’S APPEAL ALLOWED CLAIM FOR JOINERY WORK An appeal by C. R. McCallister and Company (Mr B. J. Drake) against the decision of Mr Rex C. Abernethy, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court last October, in non-suiting the company in a claim against Albert Richard Freeman (Mr D. E. Ames), was upheld in the Supreme Court yesterday by Mr Justice Northcroft. Tlie claim was for the, balance of the cost of joinery supplied by McCallister and Company to Freeman., In a reserved judgment, his Honour directed that the case should go back to the Magistrate’s Court for judgment for the company at a sum which had been decided by the Magistrate as the reasonable price for the balance of the joinery. APPEAL SUCCEEDS MAGISTRATE’S DECISION ON BANKRUPT’S DEBT Dissenting from the view of Mr E. A. Lee, S.M., that two letters produced in evidence constituted "a valid and enforceable guarantee.” Mr Justice Northcroft in the Supreme Court yesterday allowed an appeal by Robert William Ling against a decision in the Magistrate’s Court. In the Lower Court Mason, Struthers and Company, Ltd., claimed £165 13s from Ling, alleging that Ling, an accountant, had guaranteed a debt owed to Mason, Struthers by a builder, Robert John Pomeroy, who filed in bankruptcy in 1949. The Magistrate’s decision was in favour of Mason, Struthers.

In a letter to the company in October, 1948, Ling had written: “As I have previously mentioned, I have no hesitation in personally guaranteeing this man.” The final words of this letter were those upon which the allegation of guarantee depended, said his Honour. These words, "referring as they do to previous statements on the same subject and to the same effect, were, in my opinion, no more than a clumsy attempt at emphasis of the appellant’s belief in the stability of Pomeroy, and were regarded by the respondent as no more than that. ... I think the appellant should have succeeded in the action in the Court below, and I accordingly allow the appeal.” Counsel for the appellant was Mr K. A. Gough, and for the respondent Mr R. W.