WAGES CLAIM NON-SUITED.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 732, 8 April 1933, Page 21 (Supplement)

WAGES CLAIM NON-SUITED.

(Special to the ** Star."l HOKITIKA, April 7. A claim for £9O 17s Id in wages and £2O board money allegedly wrongly charged during a period of employment, was non-suited by Mr W. Meldrum. S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court to-day. James Warnock was the plaintiff and Bridget O'Connor defendant. Warnock claimed that, after he had been a boarder at defendant's hotel, defendant had approached him and offered him a position as porter at the hotel at 10s a week and-board. He worked regularly, and according to the award he was entitled to the wages, while the money he paid in board should be refunded. The defence was that Warnock, who was a drv-cleaner by trade, had approached defendant and asked if she could reduce his board as times were hard. This had been agreed to, and it was understood that Warnock should give a hand with the work round the hotel. H« had not been engaged as a porter. Counsel for defendant said that plaintiff had been a dry-eleaner, insurance agent, a cax* driver for hire without license, interspersed with relief work, and his unemployment registration form had shown that plaintiff had styled himself as his own employer and drycleaner by trade, not as a porter, showing that at that time he did not consider himself an employee at the hotel. The Magistrate spoke strongly in summing up, and gave judgment for defendant with full costs.