VERMIN IN A FLAT

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 September 1940, Page 9

VERMIN IN A FLAT

BREACH OF LEASE JUSTIFIED. ! SYDNEY, June 25. Barbara Weekes a Hollywood actress who is making a film in Sydney and her husband Lewis D. Parker a test pilot for an American aircraft firm successfully defended, in a Sydney court, a £lOO claim for breach of contract by a landlord. Two beds in an expensive fiat taken by them, the judge found, were infested with vermin. The landlord, Cecil Susman Cohen, claimed that he let the flat to the Parkers at 6|gns a week for 24 weeks, from January 12 last. He alleged that the Parkers had broken their lease by prematurely quitting the premises. He claimed a further £25 for articles missing from the inventory and damage to furniture. Mrs. Parker, in her evidence, said that the flat was dirty when she began the tenancy, and it took a week to clean it thoroughly. She soon discovered the vermin in the beds, mattresses, pillows, and skirting boards. “There were hundreds of them,” said Mrs. Parker, “and they caused big red welts on me.” Finally a fumigator had to be called in twice, but then the Parkers decided to leave the flat. The judge found the Parkers were justified in leaving the flat, and dismissed Cohen’s action for damages on that claim. He awarded Cohen £9/6/- on his claim for £25 foi' damage to furniture in the flat and missing linen. He dismissed the Parkers’ claim for £2O for fumigation expenses, and £2/5/- for injury to their health. Parker is in Australia to supervise the assembly and testing of Lockheed Hudson bomber' "planes for the R.A.A.F.. His wife had a leading part in the recently-completed Australian film, “Dad Rudd, M.P.”