EMPLOYERS SUED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21514, 10 June 1933, Page 11

EMPLOYERS SUED

WATERSI DER'S CLAIM FAILS

REASON FOR COMBINATION

[BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION"]

CHRISTCITURCH, Friday

A claim for £IOO was heard by Mr. H. A. Young, S.M., in the Lyttelton Magistrate's Court to-day, the plaintiff being Harry Hutson, a watersider, who alleged that five employers of labour had combined to injure him in his calling. Defendants were Arthur Knight Dyne, stationmaster at Lyttelton, Robert C. Skipage, agent for the New Zealand Shipping Company, Walter Scott, master mariner, Joseph Garrard, branch manager for Kinsey and Company, and Thomas Henry, wharf superintendent for the Union Company, all of whom denied combination in refusing to give plaintiff work.

Counsel stated that in March plaintiff was bound over on a charge of assault. He had thrown a knifo along a table and the knife unfortunately struck the foreman, and plaintiff was charged with assault. The magistrate, Mr. E. D. Mosley, then stated that the case was not as .serious as it appeared. The defendants, it was alleged, considered the penalty imposed was not sufficiently severe and plaintiff had t 1 us been unable to obtain work.

Counsel for defendant parties moved for a non-suit. It was argued that if the real purpose of a combination was not to inj lire plaintiff but to defend certain other persons, an action for damages could not succeed. Plaintiff must prove there was a conspiracy with the object of doing harm to him, and of this there was no proof. It was denied there was any combination. It was admitted that on some occasions some employers had refused to employ Huston, but the employers had acted to protect their own interests. They considered Huston was dangerous and a menace and might cause trouble among their own employees on the waterfront.

Tho magistrate said he agreed with tho contention of counsel for defendants. Ho would go further and say that if there was a combination, its real purpose was not to injure plaintiff, but to protect other workers.

The application for a non-suit was upheld.