COURT NEWS

Grey River Argus, 29 August 1939, Page 10

COURT NEWS

£1044 DAMAGES FOR FLAX FIRE. WELLINGTON, August 25. The legal battle over fire damage to a flax area at Mungaroa and Wallaceville entered its final phasei m th Supreme Court at Wellington 'night where at midnight a special jury awarded’the-plaintiffs £1044 damages and costs. The plaintiffs, as executors of the will of David Crighton Martin, were awarded £2750 damages and £282 costs against the defendant, Sn Ken neth Douglas, Bart., solicitor of Wellington, on a £5OOO claim' heard i.i May 1938. The Court of Appeal latex granted an order for a new trial on the question of damages only. The issue, said the Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers) in summing up, was whether or not there was a crop of millable flax on the property at the time of the fire and wnat was its worth to the plaintiffs, immediate or potential.

A SPONGER. WELLINGTON, August 28. “In your case it seems that you followed a life of sponging. You are a ne’er-do-well, and it is impossible to extend any leniency to you, said Mr Luxford, S.M., to Harold Magner, 34, salesman, who pleaded guilty to two charges, involving the theft of portable typewriters. He was sentenced to three months' imprisonment on each charge. Accused got the machines on representation of wanting to purchase one. They were recovered from pawnbrokers. He was remanded on a charge of obtaining £2 by means of a false pretence. Statements made by the police indicated that accused was from England, and since he had been in Wellington, lie had borrowed from various business people to an amount aggiegating about £l,OOO. AUCKLAND, August 27.

A sum of about £2O was stolen when a safe in the Runciman Post Office was blown open some time between midday on Saturday and 8 a.m. today. In recent years, the same post office has been entered on two previous occasions. Gelignite and a detonator were used to open the safe. The mechanism was damaged, permitting the door to be opened, but no other damage was caused to the rest of the small building. The nearest house to the post office is about quarter of a mile away, while the postmaster lives almost a mile distant.