SON SUES FATHER

Taranaki Daily News, 8 May 1930, Page 13

SON SUES FATHER

WAGES FOR FARM WORKSUM OF £6'o AWARDED. »■ Hamilton, May 6. . Arrears in wages amounting to £66 were claimed by Dennis Houghton, farm labourer, of Hew Plymouth from his father, John Mildward Houghton, ol Claudelands, in the Hamilton Magistrate’s Court to-day. Mr. F. Swarbnek represented defendant and Mr. ClaytonGreene appeared for plaintiff. Plaintiff said ho was engaged as a farm labourer until 19’27, when he was earning from 35s to £2 a week. Hm father saw him in Wanganui and asked him to work for him on a sharemilking contract at Eureka. It wa.-> agreed that he should receive £2 a week and found. There were about 95 cows, which wcie milked by plaintiff, his father and brother. He received no wages, apart from a small tobacco allowance. . His father later undertook farm work at Horsham Downs, for which he was paid £5 a week and a bonus. Plaintiff agreed to work for him for £2' a week and found. He left at the end of July and when he asked for the wages due io him his father refused. • In August, 1929, said plaintiff, he a<min started to work for his father on a farm at Claudelands. The wages agreed upon were £2 a meek and keep. IDs father paid him up to September 23 and he left on October 27, He had received no wages for the intervening period. Plaintiff denied that he had ever entered into an agreement with his father to share the profits. Plaintiff’s brother said his father had agreed to pay plaintiff £2 a week and found at Eureka before they left Wanganui. Defendant said the arrangement entered into with his son at Wanganui with regard to the share-milking contract at Eureka was that they should be paid an amount to be governed by the success of the venture. There was no definite agreement made to pay plaintiff a weekly wage, either at Eureka or at Horsham Downs. Annie Houghton, daughter of defendant, said that under an arrangement made at Wanganui plaintiff was to receive one-third-of the payments''made to his father at the Eureka farm. “I am not favourably impressed with defendant’s evidence,” said the magistrate, Mr. Wyvern Wilson. “I am inclined to think he held out to his sons the prospect of £2 a week and found. He knew what his boys were earning and it was not likely that anything less would tempt them away.” Judgment was entered for plaintiff for the amount claimed, less £7 7s as a setoff. Defendant was ordered to pay witnesses’ expenses, £l4 10s.