COURT OF APPEAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22070, 28 September 1933, Page 8

COURT OF APPEAL

DAMAGES IN SLANDER CASE THE JUDGMENT CONTESTED. (Per United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, September 27. The hearing was continued to-day of the application to the Court of Appeal by Reginald Charles Boddie for leave to appeal in forma pauperis from the decision of Mr Justice Ostler, delivered i in Wellington on June 27, 1933, in which he awarded fd damages against James Dickson Sievwright in a claim for £2500 for alleged slander. The application was opposed by the respondent on the grounds that Boddie was worth over £25 exclusive of wearing apparel. „ ■ , Mr Weston, counsel for the appellant, continuing his ' argument, submitted that the appellant should be allowed to appeal as a pauper not only because his liabilities greatly exceeded his assets, but also because he had no income and lived in a stale of absolute destitution. The court reserved the question aa to whether the appellant was a pauper, and called upon counsel to show that good grounds for appeal existed. Mr Weston submitted that Mr Justice Ostler, in assessing damages at the contemptuous sum of fd, had taken into consideration the evidence of specific act* of dishonesty, which he should have discarded. ' Mr O’Leary, counsel for the respondent, submitted that the trial judge was correct, both as to the finding of justification and the assessment of damages, and that no reasonable ground for appeal existed. After considering the question the court held that there were reasonable grounds for appeal, and that the appellant was a pauper. Leave to appeal in form* pauperis was accordingly granted.