ACTION BY COURT

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 September 1946, Page 7

ACTION BY COURT

INJUNCTION IN SQUATTING CASE SERIOUSNESS OF OFFENCE (Rec. Noon.) LONDON, Sept. 17. Mr. Justice Wynn-Parry in the Vacation Court granted an interim injunction to the Ministry of Health restraining four squatter defendants in the Duchess of Bedford’s house at Kensington from occupying the premises. Counsel for the Ministry described the occupation as “a serious act of extreme illegality.” The proceedings for the injunction did not imply a waiver of the Minister’s right to eject the squatters. It was brought in order that the legal position should be made clear to squatters in other premises and to show that they were involved in a serious civil liability to pay damages which would become larger the longer they remained. The interim injunction would restrain the, continuation of illegal acts until the trial of the action. “This is a matter of great public interest and national importance as such acts prevent those in charge of housing from carrying out their plan with order and regularity and face them with confusion and anarchy,” said Mr. Wynn-Parry, who directed that the order lie in the office for three days. He said in his judgment that none of the defendants’ affidavits disclosed anything justifying their forcible entry or remaining in the flats. The defendants and everybody else concerned in the invasion committed trespass. “If ever there was a case in which the court should inteiyene at the earliest possible stage, this is the case,” he said. Later the Judge adjourned a hearing against three defendants from Fountain Court and granted an interim injunction against four defendants from Abbey Lodge and also against a woman defendant from other premises in Westminster. Counsel for the woman said she had moved into the premises because she and seven children had been bitten 50 times by rats in the flat in which the Westminster Council had housed her.