AN APPEAL ALLOWED.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 210, 4 August 1934, Page 7

AN APPEAL ALLOWED.

AIR. E. J. HOGAN’S CASE

SYDNEY, Aug. 3

The High Court of Australia has allowed an appeal against the decision of Mr Justice Duffy in the Victorian Supreme Court, who had awarded Mr E. J. Hogah, ex-Premier of Victoria, one shilling damages against the Central executive of the Australian Labour Party in Victoria. Mr Hogan had brought an action in the Victorian Supreme Court claiming, inter alia, that his withdrawal from selection or his non-endorsement as a Labour candidate at the Victorian Parliamentary elections was wrongful and asking for an injuction restraining the executive from acting on or carrying into effect the exclusion and for such other relief as might seem just. Members of the High Court, Air Justice Rich, Mr Justice Dixon, Air Justice Evatt and Air Justice AlcTiornan, at the conclusion of a lengthy judgment, said that the policy of the law was against interference in the affairs of voluntary associations which did not confer upon members civil rights susceptible of private enjoyment. The question whether the central committee acted in accordance or contrary to the true meaning of the rules was not one of which the Court took cognisance. Air Justice Starke stated in his judgment that the Hogan Government had become a party to the Premiers’ Plan which involved reduction of expenditure including wages, salaries, pensions and interest. The central exexecutive subsequently refused to endorse Air Hogan’s nomination and excluded him from the party. It seemed that Air Hogan should have sought ledress for his undoubted grievances in the remedies provided by the rales themselves, namely, an appeal to the annual conference and, if necessary, to the Federal Conference.