ACTION FOR SLANDER

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18646, 15 August 1930, Page 6

ACTION FOR SLANDER

JURY AWARDS DAMAGES. By Telegraph—Press Association WELLINGTON, August 14. The sum of £250 damages was awarded Dr. Walter Richards in the slander action against the Australasian Temperance and General Mutual Life Assurance Society, Ltd., which concluded in the Supreme Court to-day, before Mr Justice Ostler and a jury. The basis of the action were remarks of the Society’s nurse to a patient of the doctor’s. The following issues were agreed upon for submission to the jury, and were answered as stated: —(1) “Were the words alleged in the statement of claim or similar words spoken by the nurse? —Yes.” (2) “Were the words spoken by the nurse to Miss Bell and Mrs Little defamatory of the plaintiff?—Yes.” (3) “If so, was the nurse, when she spoke those words in the presence of Mrs Little, acting bona fide, or was she actuated by malice?— By malice.” (4) “If the words spoken by the nurse were defamatory of the plaintiff, was she, in speaking those words to Mrs Bell, actuated by malice? —Yes.” (5) “What damages, if any, is the plaintiff entitled to recover from the defendant?—£250.”