ARCHITECT'S DRAUGHTSMAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15915, 12 May 1915, Page 5

ARCHITECT'S DRAUGHTSMAN.

CLAIM TO PRIVATE WORK,

The question of whether an architect's draughtsman had any right to receive payment for private work done after office hours was the basis of a civil action hoard before Mr. C. C. Kettle, S.M., in tho Magistrate's Court yesterday.

The plaintiff, Oscar Albert Jorgenson (Mr. P. B. Fitzherberl), architect, claimed from Adkins C. Jeffries (Mr. J.. F. Pullen) the Hiiro of £7 7s. It was stilted by the plaintiff that while defendant was in his employ as a draughtsman, at Palmerston North, lie received £10 from one- Maurice Miller, for preparing plans and rendering other services, during his hours of employment.

The defence was that the work was done after working hours, and that it was a recognised custom fur draughtsmen to do private work in their spare time. Norman Wade, secretary of the Auckland branch of the New Zealand Institute of Architects, said it was a custom in Auckland that after office hours draughts-1 men were permitted to do outside work,' so long as they did not tamper with | clients of tho firms by which they were I engaged. "My firm/' he added, "has oven helped our boys in private work fori which they have received payment." j Another witness corroborated this state-1 ment, but said that many firms made thai proviso that draughtsmen must acquaint their employers with the fact that tncyj were doing outside work. The magistrate sain that, apart from the question of custom, it was elementary law that a servant, even out of office hours, must not enter inU> competition with his master. If he did so, tho profits ho made must go to his employer. He would reserve his decision on the point that it was a custom for architects to allow their employees to practice privately.