AUCKLAND SLANDER CASE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22776, 9 July 1937, Page 14

AUCKLAND SLANDER CASE

NEW TRIAL NOT ALLOWED APPEAL COURT'S .DECISION [BY TELEGRAPH —PRESS ASSOCIATION] WELLINGTON, Thursday The Appeal Court to-day delivered judgment in the case of William John Bekker versus Marguerite Metre Wrack, which was heard on Juno 21. In his judgment Mr. Justice Ostler stated that the case was an appeal from the decision 'of Mr. Justice Callan, in which he granted a new trial 011 tho motion of respondent upon the ground that damages awarded her by a jury in nil action for slander wero too small. The conclusion was come to that tho new trial should not have been granted. The verdict of tho jury could be sot asido only if it were unreasonable, and it could not be said this was the case. Mr. Justice Kennedy delivered a separate judgment to the same effect and Mr. Justice Northcroft agreed. The judgment of tho Court of Appeal accordingly was that the decision of tho Judge in tho Supreme Court was erroneous and should be reversed, and tho ease remitted to tho Supreme Court, so that tho costs of the trial and the motion for a new trial might be dealt with.

In nn action brought in February Mrs. Wrack claimed £BOO damages against Bekker, a retired soap manufacturer, for false _ and malicious slander on two occasions.' Evidence was givon of a courtship between the two, which had been broken off by Bekker. Tho jury found that the words complained of had been uttered, but awarded only a farthing damages on each of the two causes of action. Mr. Justico Callan granted tho application for a new trial on the ground that there was "no justification for rating as low as a farthing the utterance "of these very gross slanders." Ho was satisfied that in the plaintiff's case the machinery of justice had not yet operated in a satisfactory manner.