TUG-OF-WAR OVER A RUG.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17456, 28 April 1920, Page 7

TUG-OF-WAR OVER A RUG.

LANDLADY AND TENANT.

Trouble between a Takapuna landlady, named Maud Rappard (Mr. Sullivan), and the wife of a returned soldier, named Victor Wendel (Mr. Leonard), 'who, with her husband and child, lived in apartments in a house in Bay View Road, formed the basis of an action for 'respass, heard before Mr. F. K. Hunt, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court yesterday. Wendel claimed £5 damages in consequence of Mrs. Rappard taking away the key of his furnished apartments, and also for entering the rooms unlawfully and removing certain chattels. The landlady counter-claimed tor €6 8s Bd, assessed damage to the furnishings of the rooms. It was state;! that the landlady proceeded to lift the carfcet and a rug, which the plaintiff used, whereupon Mrs. Wendel seized one end of the rug. A tug-of-war ensued, the defendant's father-in-law taking part. Mrs. Wendel alleged that she was kicked and scratched, and she sent her son for the police. Various articles were also removed. Plaintiff and his familv, after the loss of the key, tied up the door from the inside and got entrance to, and exit from, their quarters by the window. The trouble had originated over an arrangement to pay for the gas consumed shilling for shilling, with Mrs. Rappard. On one occasion when, it was alleged, Mr. Albert Ranpard called Mrs. Wendel a " German," she retaliated by striking him on the face, The magistrate, giving judgment for plaintiff for £1 damages, for trespass, remarked that defendant probably did not know she had no l*>s;al right to enter plaintiff's rooms without permission. He considered the counter-claim was really for " wear and tear," which he disallowed. No costs were allowed.