QUESTION OF SANITY

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 85, 9 April 1924, Page 5

QUESTION OF SANITY

APPEAL AGAINST AWARD OF

DAMAGES.

DOCTOR'S RESPONSIBILITY.

(DMTED PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPYRIGHT.) (AUSTIUUAX-.NUW -ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.)

ti a LONDON, 7th•April. lue _ Attorney-General, Mr. P. Hastiiiga, is opening appeal proceedings on behalf o£ Dr.. Bond, Lunacy Commissioner, against whom and Dr. Adam, the keeper o£ an asylum, a special jury fnsm f H, a™etS a wdl-to-do farmer, ±..25,000 for1 illegal detention lor nine years. He declared that if the judgment stood no one would ever again take the risk of certifying that a man was a lunatic, and the place would be flooded with men who ought to be in asylums. Dr. -Bond saw Barnett once in December, 1912, as Lunacy Commissioner, yet the Court mulcted him in damages <as responsible for Harnett's detention. The chief grounds of the appeal were that the verdict was against the weight of evidence, that the Judge misdirected the jury, and that the damages were excessive. Furthermore, the damages were not recoverable by law, as being too remote. Mr. Hastings quoted extracts from evidence bearing on Harnett's behaviour in 1912, chiefly indictments- in which Christ's name was mentioned. One entry in Harnett's diary read: "Marie Lloyd Modesty, 67,000 tons per minute." Counsel for Harnett explained that that entry referred to the flow of the Amazon. Mr. Hastings said Dr. Bond could not maJke head nor tail of Harnett's conver-. sation, and came to the conclusion that Dr. Adam should again see Harnett. For that decision he had been ordered to pay £25,000 as damages. He argued that Pr. Bond should not be held responsible for all that happened in asylums. He contended that the evidence was overwhelming that Harnett was insane in 1912 ■ ■ , The hearing was adjourned.