DEFAMATION CLAIM

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29956, 18 October 1962, Page 18

DEFAMATION CLAIM

Letter Caused Annoyance (N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, Oct 17. The manager of the Wellington Gas Company, Ltd., Matthew Joseph Kennedy, said in the Supreme Court at Wellington today, that he had expressed the opinion that a letter written by Harold Archibald Flett, while Flett was an employee of the Hutt Valley Electric Power and Gas Board, had contained unwarranted reflections on his company. He was a witness for the Power Board in the action in which Flett is suing the board for £5OOO general damages and £450 special damages for alleged defamation. Mr R. B. Cooke, with him Mr D. L. Brooker, appeared for Flett and Mr A. M. Cousins for the board. The Chief Justice (Sir Harold Barrowclough) presided. Kennedy said that tn March. 1961, he received from the general manager of the defendant board, Mr Mcßain, a copy of a letter written by Flett He had told Mcßain that he was annoyed at receiving the letter because he felt it contained unwarranted reflections on the works manager, Mr Rodd, and the company. He informed McBain during a telephone conversation that a number of the allegations were without foundation. To Mr Cooke, Kennedy said that when he received the copy of Flett s letter he told Mcßain he was alarmed because two people could not be in charge of the same works at the same time. He did not recall saying to McBain anything to the effect that he considered Flett to be incompetent Asked by Mr Cooke whether he had requested the boards general manager to dismiss Flett Kennedy said it was not within his competence to do so. Kennedy said he did not recall Mcßain passing any comment on Flett except that he considered Flett was dilatory in some matters. He himself had been led to believe that Flett's authority in production matters had ceased and he had felt his intrusion was unwarranted. He asked Mcßain to see that there was one man in charge of the works and not two.

The hearing will continue tomorrow.

“Perhaps some day well leave our children alone and spend our time on ourselves The home’s not so much insufficient as oversufficient. It is cloying; it tries too hard." —F. Scott Fitzgerald.