LEAVE GRANTED

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18204, 27 September 1933, Page 11

LEAVE GRANTED

APPEAL AS PAUPER SLANDER ACTION ECHO (Por Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. The hearing of the application by Reginald Charles Boddie for leave to appeal in forma pauperis from the decision of Mr. Justice Ostler, delivered in Wellington on June 27, 1933, wherein he was awarded |cl damages against James Dickson Sievwright, in a claim for 8500 for alleged .slander, was resumed before the Court of Appeal to-day. Mr. C. H. Weston, counsel for the appellant, continuing his argument, submitted that the appellant should he 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 state of absolute destitution. The court reserved the question as to whether the appellant was a pauper, and called upon counsel to show good grounds for the appeal existed. . T ilr. Weston submitted that Mr. Justice Ostler, in assessing damages at the contemptuous sum of three farthings, had taken into consideration the evidence cf specific acts of dishonesty which he should have discarded. Counsel contended, in addition, that the finding ol justification in respect to a charge that the appellant was a rogue’, and that lie ought to be in gaol, were not justified by the evidence. Mr. H. F. O’Leary, counsel for the respondent, submitted that the trial judge was correct both as to the finding of justification, and the assessment ol damages, and that no reasonable ground for appeal existed. After considering the question, tile court held that there were reasonable grounds for appeal, and that the appellant was a pauper. Leave to appeal in forma pauperis accordingly was granted.