VERDICT FOR UNION

Taranaki Daily News, 13 October 1934, Page 9

VERDICT FOR UNION

EXCLUSION OF WATERSIDER. DECISION OF APPEAL COURT. By Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington, Oct. 12. The Court of Appeal delivered judgment in the case of Edwin Charles Batt v. the Napier Waterside Workers’ Union. The Court was unanimous that the appeal should be dismissed, the Chief Justice in the course of his judgment holding that the rule in question was "intra vires. He said he could not see why the requirement of a good character and sober habits could not be regarded as a term or condition of entry into membership of a union. In his opinion no reason had been shown why the Court should differ from the finding of the trial judge that the appellant could not be regarded as a person of good character and sober habits.

“That being so,” His Honour concluded, “the appellant had not proved himself to be a person holding qualifications for membership laid down by the rule, and however much 1 sympathise with him on the ground that relatively he may be almost snow white compared with some few of the existing members of the union, I feel bound to hold that his case fails fundamentally.” The other members of the Bench expressed similar views.

It had been argued for the union that the union was within its rights in refusing membership to Batt, for, as Mr. Justice Reed had held, his conviction for theft of a bundle of fish and for drunkenness rendered it permissible for the executive to exclude him as a person not of good character and sober habits. The fact was that there was a preference for unionists, but that preference was conditional,