APPEAL REJECTED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23989, 12 December 1939, Page 7

APPEAL REJECTED

FINDING IN LIBEL CASE ALLEGED MISCONDUCT OF JURYMAN (Per United Press Association) WELLINGTON. Dec. 11. A motion for a new trial of the libel action for £IOOO brought by John Robertson, M.P. for Masterton, against Garnet H. Saunders, New Plymouth, and Harry Thompson, of Napier, motion picture exhibitors, was refused by Mr Justice Johnston in the Supreme Court to-day. The grounds for the application were that the foreman of the jury of 12 who heard the claim was guilty of misconduct, and that the verdict of the jury for the defendants was against the weight of the evidence.

The allegation of misconduct was set out in the affidavits of two law clerks, not engaged in the offices of any counsel, who said that on the third dav of the trial the foreman had discussed his views on the case, saying that the plaintiff's explanation of the omission of the defendant's names from the ballot list for the Film Control Board could not possibly be true and that the jury's view was that the case was not genuine.