APPEAL LORD REBUKED

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 26 May 1932, Page 5

APPEAL LORD REBUKED

REMARKS ON BACHELOR JUDGE QUESTIONS OF WOMEN’S ATTIRE REVERSAL OF DECISION. (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph Copyright.) LONDON, May 25. Mr Justice McCardie caused a sensation yesterday in rebuking Lord Justice iScrutton, a Lord of Appeal, tor the latter’s recent remarks when reversing a judgment of the “baekeloi judge.” _ “Before this case begins,” Mr Justice McCardie said, “I wish to say that in the event of an appeal I shall not supply a copy of my notes until I am satisfied Lord Justice Serutton will not bo a member of tlic Appeal Court. 1 regret that it has become my duty to administer this public rebuke to Lord Justice Serutton.” Lord Justice Serutton had. said the was surprised that an unmarried judge should have explained what was proper underclothing that women should wear. In an editorial referring to Mr Justice McCardie’s “pontiiicial retaliation,” “The Times” hopes the undignified dispute will go no further as it is inconsistent -with the traditions of the Bench. “Frank and fearless statements of judicial opinion should be encouraged,” the paper says, “but they are not incompatible with tact and good manners. Happily such incidents as yesterday’s are rare. Though they will not lessen public confidence in the judicial system they must inevitably- tend to lessen public respect for the members of the judiciary who provoke them.”

The appeal arose out of a case in which John Pace, a Cambridge grocer’s assistant, sued Dr. Charles Scarle for damages alleging that the doctor had enticed his wife away from him. Mr Justice McCardie found for defendant, but Lords Justices iScrutton, Green and Slesser on May 12 reversed that decision.

“If there is to be a discussion of the relations of husbands and wives, it would come better from judges who have more than a theoretical knowledge of husbands and wives,” said Lord Justice Serutton, a married man with three sons and one daughter. “Mr Justice McCardie,” he said, “nad referred to judges who possess sociological knowledge but I think the less sociological knowledge is brought to bear on legal questions the better. I am a little surprised that an unmarried gentleman should, as Mr Justice McCardie has clone in another case, explain what is the proper underclothing that ladies should wear. I think that these things are better disregarded in legal discussions. ”