£2000 CLAIMED.

Mataura Ensign, 17 June 1914, Page 5

£2OOO CLAIMED.

——-♦ ■ A MANAGING DIRECTOR SUED. BT KLEBTBIO TELEGEAPH PEE UNITED PBEBS ASSOCIATION. SYDNEY, June 16. The 'action in which Gwendoline Browne, typiste in the employ of John. Bridge audi Co., claims) £2OOO from Lionel Bridge, managing director of the company, for .alleged libel and assault, Was continued to-day. The evidence of Lionel J. A. Bridge,the defendant, was a controversion of the statements 'and' deductions! drawn by the plaintiff and 1 her witnesses. He declared that there was nothing in his mind when ha wirote the Tetter •whereon the action was founded except the maintenance of discipline.and the service .of the company. He 1 ' admitted carrying Miss Browne out, but denied using unnecessary force. Evidence tendered during the case disclosed the fact that certain "employees had been dismissed! or had severed! their connection with John Bridge and Company as the result (Of the incident.

''Counsel for the defence ,argujedl that if the jury were to believe the plaintiffs evidence, they must conclude that defendant and his co-directors of thr Bridge Company were iguilty of dialboiical wickedness. He characterised one portion of Miss Browne's evidence — that the defendant in conversation with her said that she might have her salary doubled if she! adopted a sugges-tion-he made to her —as the pure imagination of an hysterical girl. Het contended that Mr Morath, head of Misa Browne's department, was seeking to relieva himself of authority given by the directors in connection dwith matters concerning his department, and used the Browne incident to forward his pretensions l . Counsel for plaintiff said that the motives of defendant in dismissing Miss Browne were that she • spurned his overtures, and as a man rejected he resorfefi! to spite and' malice. There also was ill-feelin« between the defendant and Morath, and the dismissed girl would be a means of checkmating-and making Morath bite the dust- The girl was only a pawn in the game. The -case had not concluded when the court rose.