Supreme Court APPEALS FAIL

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30390, 14 March 1964, Page 20

Supreme Court APPEALS FAIL

Sentences Upheld An appeal against a sentence of nine months’ imprisonment imposed on John Thomas Cuff was dismissed by Mr Justice Wilson in the Supreme Court yesterday. This sentence was imposed on Cuff in the Magistrate’s Court in Christchurch on February 20 on a charge of false pretences. Cuff, who was not represented by counsel, said he had come to Christchurch from Dunedin, where he had a bad record, to make a fresh start. He had obtained four watches from a city store, giving a false name and address, and had later taken three of them back. Realising what he had done, he had then given himself up to the police. He had intended to buy one of the watches and to take back the other three, said the appellant. He had given a false name and address at the store because of his bad record in hire-purchase transactions in Dunedin. For the Crown, Mr I. C. J. Polson said that Cuff had a bad record of crimes involving dishonesty, with previous convictions for false pretences, theft and forgery. In dismissing the appeal, his Honour said that Cuff had not shown the proper response to a term of probation imposed on a previous occasion. Dismissed His Honour dismissed an appeal by Francis Henry Keen, aged 36, a wood merchant, against his conviction in the Magistrate’s Court in Christchurch on a charge of carelessly using a motor vehicle so as to have caused the death of Clarence Leslie Reed on October 5. For Keen, Mr L. G, Holder submitted that the evidence of witnesses in a car, beside which Reed was standing when he was struck by Keen’s truck, was most unsatisfactory. This evidence was elicited only after a long series of leading questions and many objections by himself, counsel said. He submitted that it could not be assumed that Reed was struck by the front of the truck rather than by something projecting sideways from the deck. His Honour commented that Reed was propelled some 30ft, mainly in a forward direction. Civil Appeal Allowed His Honour ■ allowed an appeal by John Graham Burt against an award of damages made against him in the Magistrate’* Court on October 17. Burt was ordered on that occasion to pay damages amounting to £l9 17s 3d, and costs* to John Peter Edwards, arising out Of a collision be-

tween cars driven by the two men in Kilmore street on June 8, 1962. After hearing submissions by the appellant, and by Mr J. F. Bum, counsel for Edwards, his Honour said that he would apportion the blame for the accident two-thirds to Burt and one-third to Edwards. He allowed the appeal and remitted the . action back to the Magistrate’s Court for the entry of a judgment on the claim, and the counter-claim, in accordance With his direction as to the respective responsibilities of the parties, and according to the amount of the counter-claim which the Magistrate found to be proved.