EMPLOYERS TO PAY

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 December 1923, Page 5

EMPLOYERS TO PAY

WOMAN FALSELY ACCUSED.

(Australian and N.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, December 5. The Chief Justice and a special jury heard Mrs Abott’s claim for damages against Garroulds, drapers, of Edgeware Hoad, for false imprisonment and trespass. The plaintiff complained that while she. was an employee of Garroulds, she was called into the office and questioned by detectives, with reference Io the theft of two rolls of silk. Although she told all that she knew the detectives did not believe her and they made her accompany them to her flat, which, the detectives ransacked. The defence was that the firm was not responsible for the manner in which the police carried out their duties. Detective Harney declared that the plaintiff had invited the detectives to search her flat if they thought the stolen property was there. The Chief Justice, in summing up, said that if the plaintiff’s story was true, she had been treated with a cynical disregard for her dues. Her rights had been invaded, and her dignity grossly affronted. It was a case in which the jury, if it chose, could award substantial damages to make it plain that the defendants had been guilty of conduct which no British jury would tolerate. The jury awarded the plaintiff £5OO. Judgment was entered accordingly. A stay of execution was refused.