SUPREME COURT

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11195, 28 April 1922, Page 7

SUPREME COURT

/■ MOTION FOR NEW TRIAL. JURY’S ALLEGED MISCONDUCT. Tried previously at Masferton: before Mr Justice Chapman and a jury, the claim of Eliza Jane Gallagher against William Walker BickneU, both of Grey town, was . yesterday referred to the Supreme .Court, motion being made for a new trial. When tried at Masterton, the jury, after a trial extending over three days, found a verdict for the plaintiff for £BOO. Mr H. E. Hart appeared for the plaintiff, Air A. W. Blair for the defendant, the grounds. ,qf litigartion being breach of a covon anti to repair in a lease. Tlie grounds for moving for a new trial were Trased principally upon the suggestion by the defendant that (a) the damages awarded -by the. jury on March 29th, 1922, were excessive; (b) that tlie verdict as to the amount of damages was against the weight of evidence; (c) that certain members of the jury had been guilty of misconduct in discussing the evidence with one of the plaintiff’s witnesses at the; lunch-, eoti'adjournment on March 29th, 1922; and that (d) one witness for the plaintiff had been guilty of misconduct so as to affect the result of the trial, in that he (the witness), at tlie luncheon adjournment on March 29th, 1922, had discussed the trial with the foreman nnd other members of the jury, informing them that the defendant bad made large profits to the extent of £2O,0 n 0 out of ,tlie lease from plaintiff to defendant.

T 1 e hearing of the case occupied por- ; tic. of the forenoon, and was resumed a J "4 p.m. after the disposal of the r ..her cases in the Supreme Court, ipon which His Honour the Chief Justice was occupied most of the day. Judgment was reserved.