CLAIMS AND COURT

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 47, 24 August 1931, Page 8

CLAIMS AND COURT

A monumental document of nearly 1600 words embodied the statement of claim of the Queensland Government for the recovery, of £30,000 from the Federal Treasurer (Edward Granville Theodore),. William M'Cormack, Peter Louis Goddard, and iFrederick Reid. Briefly, the claim was one for damages for alleged conspiracy, "causing damage to the estate of our said Lord tho King," or, in the alternative—

".(b) Damages for that the defendants, Reid, M'Cormaek, and Theodore, agreed to give Peter Louis Goddard, the agent and servant of the King, and the said Goddard agreed to take, and did take, a certain.'benefit-in consideration of. the said Goddard as such agent and servant as recommending or procuring the purchase by the' King of certain mines at Mungana, known as the Lady Jane and the Girofla, so that the defendants thereby procured the purchase of the said mines in fraud of the said King;" . Sub-section two of. tho claim was as against the defendants, M'Cormack and Theodore,, for— (a) An account of all profits made by them and each of them -from or in connection with the purchase of the said mines as the agents of the King and in breach of their duty as such agents. . •'■ . '

(b) Payment of the amount found due on the taking of ihe said account, or, in |he alternative, damages for breach of duty as such agent or agents, as aforesaid, or, in the further alternative, Sub-section three, as against the defendants M'Cormack and Theodore, is for damages for conversion. ,' WHO'S WHO. - The case was heard.by the Chief Justice of Queensland (Mr. Justice Blair) and a jury of four. During, his thirteen years in State politics before his elevation to the Bench, Mr. Justice Blair held successively the' portfolios of AttorneyGeneral, Mines, and' Public Instruction, and twice was Acting-P,rcmier. The Crown case was conducted by the ■ Attorney-General • (Mr. 'N. F. MacGroarty), who was,.adinitted to tho Bar twelve years ago, and who" entered Parliament .as member for South Brisbane in 1923, being given tho portfolio of Minister of Justice. Mr.MacGroaity had with him as second counsel for the. Crown Mr. A. D. M'Gill, who was counsel for the Crown in the proceedings before -the. .Royal Commission on the Mungana and Chil--I'agoe mines, the report of which' formed the basis for the present action. • Mr. George Seaman was junior counsel for the Crown. He hails from North Queensland, and was associate to the late Mr. Justice Woolcock, the late Mr. Justice Stumm, and Mr. Justice Henchman, having been admitted to the, Bar in 1929. . FOE THE DEFENCE. Mft Neal Macrossan was senior counsel for the defence." In his early forties, Mr. Macrossan is a brother of Mr. Justice H 4 D..Macrossan (Senior Puisne Judge of Queensland).' Mr. Rose Philp, second counsel for the defence, was born in Sydney. He was .admitted to; tho Queensland Bar in 1923, and has practised in that State ever since. Mr. A. J. Mansfield, son of the late Judge Mansfield, of the Queensland District Court, was junior counsel for the defence.' He graduated from Sydney University, and was admitted first to the New South Wales Bar and.then to the Queensland Bar. Mr. Duncan Pierson (associate to the Chief Justice) had to take charge of and index for the Jury nearly 3000 exhibits in the case, practically all of them being departmental and other documents. ; .\ . -