A WRIT FOR £1000 DAMAGES

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLII, Issue 10114, 23 October 1917, Page 6

A WRIT FOR £IOOO DAMAGES

£IOOO DAMAGES CLAIMED. ! AGAINST MEMBERS OK COURT- ) . 'MARTIAL, Aciiug on behalf of Samuel Rdwird Fitzj gorald, of the city of Weljjnjj'tpn, seaman, at present. ili > camp tit Trent hipn. Vnd to whose case reference was made in the, House ofr.ftepreseittatives a few weeks ago,. Mr P. jJ' o'Regan has issued a" writ for £IOOO i damages for wrongful imprisonment against j the ollif'ei's who comprised tho District | Court-martial byywhich ihe plaintiff was j sentenced in March last, to twelve months' j imprisonment. Tile defendants named in the •'writ are Captain Clarence Reginald I Maedonahl, of ,'Trentham: Lieutenant | Colonel- David Pririfrle, of" .Palmer.-ton ! tyovth • Richard t lenient Kirk, of Welline,j ton,' barrister; and' solicitor; Captain Wji■,'liaiu Pirotinche'r' Powell Thring, Wellington;; Captain Frank Herbert Salter, of Christchurch; Cuptajri William Qnayle Kewislj, .-of .Auckland ;, and Colonel ■ John Edwarp Hume, of Palmorston North. The action is grounded on mo allegation that the court-martial avik -illegally oonstiV tilted in that. .Mr Kirk was not qualified to sit f hereon,-he being at tho time- an officer on ihe letirod lint; also that the plaintiff Fitzgerald was jiot, in fact, a deserter. i Fitzgerald was not. in fact, a dof-erter. It will be remembered that the Fitzgerald case nil., the subject of some strong comments in the House by Mr P. O. Webb, the member for Grey, when speaking on tho second reading of the Expeditionary Eoi'ces'' Amendment Bill on the night of Friday. September 1-llh. Mr Webb drew,' attention to the provision of clause 10 of the Pill, which is clearly intended to be retrospective in its operation, and the alleged purport of which' i,; to legalise the. tribunal by whom Fitzgerald was sentenced. On 'thai occasion the debate was adjourned ■nil ihe motion of Mr Anderson, :of Ma-, la lira, and has not been resumed since. Should the clause be passed into law, it. would; appear that Fitzgerald's action cannot proceed. Fitzgerald's.'.sentence was remitted by the Governor early in September, and ho i<- now at Trent ham, and it ii; urfdeiftood that, as the result of a further medical ex-, .aminaliou, l|p has now been classed for home .service' only-