CLAIM FAILS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23011, 12 April 1938, Page 15

CLAIM FAILS

ACTION BY MATRON ALLEGED SLANDER MALICE NOT PROVED WAIHI HOSPITAL CASE Judgment for defendant without costs was given by Mr. Justice Fair in the Supreme Court yesterday in the case in which Mrs. Isabella Jane Paddock, former matron of the Waihi Hospital, sued Dr. Archibald Jenkins, medical superintendent of the hospital, claiming £475 damages for alleged slander and libel. The plaintiff alleged that Dr. Jenkins had spoken falsely and maliciously of her to members of the Waihi Hospital Board and others. The defendant made a general denial, and claimed that if the words complained of were used they were privileged and used without malice and in the belief that they were true. Qualified Privilege The hearing of the action has occupied the Court since Monday of last week. Mr. P. B. Fitzherbert appeared for the plaintiff and Mr. Newbery for the defence. Both counsel reviewed evidence and addressed His Honor yesterday on legal aspects of the case. His Honor said he had found earlier that the publication of the words complained of had been proved in each case | except one, on which the plaintiff did not desire to proceed. He found also that in each case the words were spoken on an occasion which conferred a qualified privilege on the defendant, which meant that the words were privileged unless malice on his part could be shown. The Only Issue Involved That left as the sole issue the question whether the plaintiff had established that in making these defamatory statements the defendant was actuated by malice so as to remove the protection of qualified privilege. If the statements were made with an honest desire to perform a duty and were not due to other motives then the protection was afforded. It was not necessarily malice, although the statements were excessive and went beyond what the facts reasonably justified. Many considerations led to the conclusion that rightly or wrongly the defendant quite honestly • came to the conclusion that Mrs. Paddock was not as suitable a matron as he wished to have in the hospital. Judgment lor Delendant

"I think the same motive really governed him all through," said His Honor, "a desire to see the best matron in the hospital, and in the performance of that he made a great number of indiscreet statements which could not be substantiated, but in no case did I find it proved that he was influenced by malice in these matters." His Honor then gave judgment for the defendant without costs.