Judge Upholds Appeal In Land Sales Case

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 October 1947, Page 4

Judge Upholds Appeal In Land Sales Case

(P.A.) AUCKLAND, This Day. “It is always dangerous to act on the uncorroborated testimony of accomplices,” said Mr Justice Callan, delivering judgment in which he upheld the appeals by a land agent, and the vendor of a house property against their conviction and penalties for an alleged breach of the Land Sales Act.

The appellants were James W. Hayden, a land agent, and George L. B.' Whillans,a retired hotelkeeper, who were convicted by Mr J. H. Luxford, r S.M., on the information of William Norman Waite, a naval officer, that he secretly paid Hayden as agent for Whillang £4OO above the price approved by the Land Sales Committee for a house at Milford. His Honor said he believed Waite to be a truthful witness, but he was an accomplice and his evidence was uncorroborated. The court had to observe the authorities laying down that it was dangerous to convict on the uncorroborated evidence of an accomplice. His Honor added that he believed Waite’s evidence, and, according to that evidence, Whillans and Hayden were both guilty. However, after careful consideration he had reached the conclusion, not without regret, that the proper course was to allow the appeals. I£ he took the great responsibility of disregarding the warning of legal authorities, that it was always dangerous to convict on the uncorroborated testimony of an accomplice, it would furnish an example to other tribunals and would damage the respect which juries might thereafter be expected to pay to warnings given by him and would involve an obstinate confidence in his own opinion, in which he did not think he should indplge.