Who pays in Jones case?

Press, 27 May 1978, Page 5

Who pays in Jones case?

PA Wellington Traffic officer Kenneth McLeod does not yet know who will pay the expenses he incurred in last month’s defamation case against Mr Robert Jones, a property millionaire. Unless he chooses to tell when he does know, the public may never learn whether they helped to pay for the Supreme Court cases.

A jury awarded Mr McLeod $2500 for defamation, and Mr Jones was awarded $4OOO in a counterclaim for unlawful detention. Costs in the cases have been estimated as high as $25,000. On April 13, the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon), said he did not know whether the Crown would pay Mr McLeod’s costs. It was the customary procedure for the Crown to pay Ministers’ costs in court cases, he said. The Deputy Secretary for Transport (Mr A. J. Healy) said that he was unable to make any form of statement to the press about the costs.

“It is an internal matter and is being handled in terms of confidential staff relations,” he said. The public was not entitled to knov what the position was. Whether Traffic Officer McLeod was prepared to say what the decision was, after he knew, was up to him, said Mr Healy.

Counsel for Traffic Officer McLeod, Mr D. Castle, would not comment on the question of who was to pay costs.

“I have no comment and nothing to report. Whatever there is, is confidential,” he said. The office of the Minister of Transport (Mr McLachlan), said that ,the Minister had not become involved in the matter at all. It was an internal matter and was being dealt with at a departmental level.