STATEMENT TO POLICE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19335, 27 May 1937, Page 11

STATEMENT TO POLICE

PRODUCTION IN COURT ORDER MADE BY JUDGE USE AS EVIDENCE (Pur Press Association.) AUCKLAND, last nightHolding that no ground upon which privilege was claimed had been put forward, Mr. Justice Callan, in the Supreme Court to-dav, ruled that an unsigned statement made to a police constable should be produced in evidence during the hearing of a claim for £2OOO brought by a farmer against a sawmiller for the kiss of plaintiff's wife in a motor accident.

Mr. A. K. North, for the defence., called Superintendent Till of Auckland, and asked him to produce a statement made by the driver of a motor car to a police constable. Superintendent Till claimed privilege, saying that he had been instructed to do so. The statement was not signed and the maker of it was not a party to the action. His Honour: Well, superintendent, with regard to your point that the statement is" not signed, J take it that what counsel is ondeavouring to prove is something said to the constable by the person who did not sign the statement. If the constable could remember what was said, I would rule that he could give evidence. Further, the point that the person making the statement was not a party tn the action before the court makes no difference to your superior officer. Who has given you instructions to claim privilege? Superintendent Till: The Commissioner of Police. I have his memorandum here. His Honour said bis view was that if privilege was to be claimed, something further from a Minister of the Crown should be hefore the court. The grounds for making the claim, in the State's interest, shold be set out. While not. expressing an opinion whether a claim for privilege was so or not, His Honour said he did not consider, in view of the method by which the claim was made, the court should take any action at all. The grounds upon which it, was based were not placed before the court and ho would rule that the statement should lie produced. Superintendent Till then .handed the document to Constable Huckslep, who had taken the statement, and who used portion of it in evidence.