ECHO OF HARNETT CASE

Evening Star, Issue 19713, 14 November 1927, Page 2

ECHO OF HARNETT CASE

CELEBRATED LITIGANT FOUND DROWNED Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, November 11. (Received November 12, at 1.30 a.m.) - Tho -formpr asylum,inmate Harnett, the. celebrated litigant . who • successfully fought- a series of cases with distinction, but lost on an. appeal) was found drowned in tho Poplar Docks. Tho final judgment was pronounced by the House of Lords on July 27. [xt special jury awarded Mr Harnett, a well-to-do farmer, £17,500 damages against Dr Bond, Commissioner in Lunacy, and £7,500 against’ Dr Adam, keeper of a mental hospital, for alleged unlawful detention in the institution for nine years. On February' 27, 1924, judgment was given for £20,000, with costs, against Drs Bond and Adam, jointly, and for £5,000 against Dr Bond, with costs. The defendants appealed, and, on May 17, the Court of Appeal allowed Dr,-Adams’s appeal, and entered judgment for him with costs. A new trial was ordered in the case of Dr Bond, who was granted the costs of his appeal, and judgment was reversed in this case also. Later Mr Harnett claimed damages from Dr Henry Fisher for negligently certifying him insane in 1912. It was disclosed that Dr Fisher’s certificate waspartly based on a statement by Mr Harnett’s younger brother that ho bad wrangled about religious matters J with plaintiff, who was deeply steeped in. sectarian topics. This claimed failed on a technicality.]