CROWN SUED.FOR £20,000.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 148, 19 December 1907, Page 3

CROWN SUED. FOR £20,000.

. , t~, ,*.;', (From Our 'Own Corresnondent.) LONDON, Bth November. An old man/ 9Q'yeais ,of ag«, walked into the Crown- Office of 1 the Law Couits on Monday, at 11 o'clock, and staggered the officials ~by.-.setting down-, on-- the counter .a „voluminous. voluminous .document, which pioved ,to be an affidavit. ."What's 'this" enquired one of tile clerks. , " .' , ' "ItVaira"clirm T .fni taking against the King, Crown, and Parliament oi England for £20,000 damages for neglect," \v,is the somewhat surprising rcpl.v. "and' I wraiit to 'sun in forma' pjauperi?."'I'lib*official wont through'the dofcum'en't with care, congratulatodthc old man mi its lepularity, an.rl> told him he would have an answer in a day or two. __/The prospective,-proisecutor of the King, Crown, and Parliament of England is wid' to lure been .*t one .time the employer .'of .the late Premier of New Zcala'aud," Mr. Richard-John Scddoii. Ho is now living in obscurity in a London County Cdunc.il 1' lodging-house in Dimylane The .coming trial arises out of an action in Tasmania nparly twenty years ago. ' The njd.man—Mr.'. John W. Burt —wos plaintiff, and thsr<> was some mlstaUc in connection with Uir entry of tire /Magistrate'^ decision This affected other litigation in which Burt was lnvolv'pd, and' finding that the colonial courts could not denl with the matter, the people of Tasmania subscribed, and sent.'him'to" Englnnd' to put this cas,o boforc the House of Lordß. The Hou:-o of Lords refcired him to the .ludici.il Committee of th(; Privy Council, who decided thnt they had' no jurisdiction over petty session courts in Tasmania. Recently ho put the matter in thp. hands of an eminent counsel, who advised that the best course was \o bring an action for damages against thp Crown.