No Jurisdiction In Action Against American Ship

Northern Advocate, 14 December 1939, Page 9

No Jurisdiction In Action Against American Ship

I Per Press Association. Copyriqh 1.1 WELLINGTON. This Day.

In a reserved judgment delivered yesterday, the Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers) held that the Supreme Court of New Zealand m no jurisdiction in its capacity as an Admiralty Court to decide an action brought by a New Zealand subject against an American 1 ship. The ruling arose from an action against the liner Monterey,

Alleged Assault

Mrs Rose Mabel Hamilton, of Wellington. widow, alleged in a writ that she .was assaulted by Michael McDonough, an American steward on the Monterey, on the high seas between Honolulu and New Zealand on May 12, 1938. An application was made lo the Court to dismiss the action for want of jurisdiction.

His Honour said that so far as the question depended upon jurisdiction conferred by statute, it was necessary, as a foundation of jurisdiction, that the claim should be for damage done by any ship, assuming that the word “damage" in the Statute included personal injury. ,

Action Dismissed

Tire authorities showed that the ship must be the active cause of the damage. It was net sufficient that the injury was done merely on board the ship, or by those in charge of the ship, with tire shin as a noxious instrument.

That could not possibly bo said in tire present case. The action was dismissed in accordance with the terms of the motion.

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