WAGES DISPUTE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23687, 20 June 1940, Page 16

WAGES DISPUTE

STATUS OF EMPLOYER COMPANY APPEAL -ALLOWED [from our own correspondent] HAMILTON, Wednesday A reserved judgment prepared by Mr. Justice Johnston was given in the Supreme Court at Hamilton to-day in the case in which the Botorua Timber Company, Limited, appealed against a decision of Mr. S. L. Paterson, S.M., in connection with a claim for wages. The respondents were J. M. Stanley and others.

His Honor said nine workmen, including seven millhands and two bushmen, were joined as plaintiffs in a claim for £124 in wages made against one Wilson, a millhand, and the appellant company. A point in dispute was whether the plaintiffs were employed by Wilson as a contractor or by the company. The company denied that it emploved the men. The magistrate, however, fouiid that plaintiffs were employed by the company and gave a joint and several judgment against the company and against Wilson by default for the amount claimed. His Honor held that the magistrate s finding that Wilson was not the employer yet was liable on a contract of employment to which he was . not a party' could not be sustained, even though Wilson did not appear. The E roper course was that plaintiffs should e nonsuited on the claim founded on a contract of employment for wages, leaving the action untouched so far as it was a claim for a lien under the Wages Protection and Contractors Liens Act, 1939. The appeal was allowed with costs.