JUDGE’S CASTIGATION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 10, 10 December 1936, Page 10

JUDGE’S CASTIGATION.

VERDICT AT CHRISTCHURCH. PLAINTIFF SUCCEEDS. Per Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, Dec. 10. A severe indictment of tlie business methods of Osmond Arthur Bridgewater, a stockbroker, was expressed by Air Justice Northcroft when delivering his judgment on tlie debenture ease in the Supreme Court, this morning. “Bridgewater,” said His Honour, “sought to mislead the Court, and he might have succeeded if the correspondence had not confounded him and revealed his menda-city. AVhether in business dealings or in Court, Bridgewater is a smooth liar with special flair for the ingenious misuse of halftruths.”

His Honour’s judgment was in favour of plaintiff, George Ernest Argyle, printer, of Ashburton, who proceeded against the Australasian Investment Corporation alleging misrepresentation by defendant’s agent, Bridgowater. Argyle claimed the return of debentures to tlie value of £l7O in the Investment Executive Trust and of dividends paid by the Public Trustee as liquidator of tlie trust. Plaintiff alleged that he had been induced to transfer debentures to tlie defendant company by misrepresentation. The verbal judgment, which occupied over an hour, ordered tlie cancellation of tlie contract of shareholding and ordered the return of plaintiff’s debentures. The Judge further gave judgment for £l7, together with costs, as on the claim for £l7O and witness’s expenses and disbursements. Mr R. A. Young, for plaintiff, stated at the beginning of tho hearing that the case was one of ten in which the total amount involved was £IO,OOO. “Bridgewater sought to capitalise tho* hostility to AlcArthur,” said Air Justice Northcroft. “At first it is probable that each moved separately, but to his own end—that is something. AlcArthur and Bridgewater were, 1 believe, intimate friends and certainly old associates, and it was inevitable that they would traverse the same commercial road together. In my opinion, I think the allegation is true that Bridgewater declared that McArthur had no association or connection with the defend-ant-company.

“Bridgewater is personable and wellspoken,” added the Judge. “At the outset he creates a good impression, and it is relevant to consider how lie would have impressed those commercially unsophisticated people with whom, for the most part, he seemed to have carried out his transactions. I was anxious to accept Bridgewater, if it were possible, but I was driven to the conclusion that he was unreliable. That is not to say he prefers falsehoods. Bridgewater, as I judge him, is more concerned to make his point in salesmanship or money-getting, and is unscrupulous in his disregard of the truth to accomplish that end. I thought Bridgewater sought to mislead the Court, a.nd lie might have succeeded if the correspondence produced had not confounded him and revealed his mendacity. Whether in his business dealings or in Court, Bridgewater is a smooth liar, with a special flair for the ingenious misuses of half-truths.”