AN IMPUDENT CLAIM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9262, 16 January 1889, Page 5

AN IMPUDENT CLAIM.

[BY TELEGRAPH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.] Wellington, Tuesday. The Supremo Court was occupied all day hearing an action in which O'Neill, an insurance canvasser, sought to recover from tho Colonial Mutual Life Co. the sum of £600 damages for alleged libel. The case was heard before a special jury. Tho plaintiff said that ho was employed in tho New Zealand Life Insurance Department. Dofondants induced Curry, a bootmaker, to go to Mr. Luckie, Commissioner, stating that O'Neill had obtained from him a proposal of insurance in the New Zealand office, knowing that a similar proposal had boon rejected by the Colonial Mutual Co., and that O'Neill told him (Curry) not to mention this fact when applying to be insured, and that in consequence ho was dismissed from the sorvlco of tho Government Insurance Department. The defendants said that the plaintiff was formorly a canvasser for the Colonial Mutual Life Office, and whilst plaintiff was in the employ of the Government it came to defendant's knowledge that tho plaintiff had allowed persons molting proposals of insurance to the Government Office to conceal the fact that they had already been injected by the Colonial Mutual Company, and that at tho request of Mr. Luckio they (tho defendants) disclosed the fact aforesaid. They therefore pleaded that this was a privileged communication, and further pleaded that tho matters of the alleged libel were true. The jury returned a verdict for tho defendant with costs. Judge Richmond characterised the claim as a most impudent one, and said the action had most unjustifiably wasted the time of the Court.