LIBEL ACTION IN DUNEDIN.

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVIII, Issue 8039, 22 March 1887, Page 2

LIBEL ACTION IN DUNEDIN.

■ (UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.) Dunedin, March 21. The Supreme Court was occupied all day in hearing a libel case, Sutherland v. Neill. The plaintiff had been a warder in the Seacliff Lunatic Asylum, of which defendant is medical superintendent. The libel consisted in the defendant having caused a letter to be written to the Superintendent of the Auckland Asylum, stating that plaintiff had been dismissed for “ gross insolence and insubordination.” It appeared from the evidence that the plaintiff and another wardsman had written to Dr Neill stating that, in their opinion, he had neglected a patient named Cook, and they would lay the matter before the authorities for investigation. On receipt of this letter Di Neill dismissed the two warders who had signed it, and caused letters to be written to the superintendents of other institutions, intimating the dismissal and grounds far it. It was submitted that the communications were privileged, and with this his Honor agreed. Tinder the circumstances it was necessary to prove malice, and he thought, if the jury believed the warders, they might perhaps find something in their evidence which would support the idea of malice. The jury found thafc the letter was written maliciously, and gave a verdict for the plaintiff for £5 and coats.