WARRANT QUASHED

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 5 December 1940, Page 6

WARRANT QUASHED

“THE ESSENCE OF JUSTICE” PERSON SHOULD BE HEARD BEFORE JUDGMENT [U.P.A.-By Electric Telegraph-Copyright] j (Received sth December, 11.20 a.m.) MELBOURNE, This Day. The warrant issued by Mr Justice Foster for the arrest and imprisonment of Edna Isaacs was quashed by Mr Justice Martin to-day. Mr Justice Martin said that a person should be heard before judgment was given. That was the essence of Justice. He added that because Isaacs deserved no sympathy for her behaviour in Court he would refuse the motion of her counsel for costs. A Melbourne cable received on 19th October stated : “A woman plaintiff who conducted her own case in the County Court for six days in an endeavour to establish her claim to her ownership of furniture which was removed from her house, occupied by her, at the order of her husband was ordered by Mr Justice Foster to undergo imprisonment for 14 days. The woman was Edna Frances Isaacs and her husband John Isaacs, brother of Sir Isaac Isaacs, a former Chief Justice of the High Court. After deciding the claim against the woman the Judge said that never in the long history of Court had there been so gross an abuse of the processes of the law as had taken place in this case.”