APPLICATION FOR WRIT

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27404, 17 July 1954, Page 2

APPLICATION FOR WRIT

JUDGMENT GIVEN FOR DEFENDANT NO EVIDENCE OFFERED When the adjourned hearing of the application by Thomas John Downes, a clicker, for a writ of mandamus was resumed in the Supreme Court yesterday, Downes told Mr Justice McGregor that he did not propose to offer any evidence. Mr P. T. Mahon asked that judgment be entered for those he represented: F. F. Reid, Stipendiary Magistrate in Christchurch, the Maintenance Officer in Timaru, the Registrar of the Magistrate’s Court in Timaru, and the Registrar of Social Security in Timaru. His Honour entered judgment accordingly, wjth costs. In his statement of claim Downes said that on November 23, 1949, at Timaru, a maintenance order was made against him in favour of his wife, Noreen Ethel Downes; that the order was obtained not on the merits of the case; that he had attempted to file an application for a rehearing of the case, but the Magistrate in Christchurch had refused to allow the application to be filed.

Downes claimed that the Magistrate was wrong in law, and he asked the Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus that the Magistrate direct the Registrar to file his application for a rehearing. Downes also asked for a writ prohibiting the Maintenance Officer from proceeding against him on an information for disobedience of the maintenance order.