AN IMPORTANT DECISION

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXV, Issue 10713, 6 July 1915, Page 5

AN IMPORTANT DECISION

BY CHIEF JUSTICE STOET. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Last Night. A judgment of peculiar importance, as embodying the first judicial opinion of its kind given within the British Empire, was delivered at the Supreme Court to-day by the Chief Justice. It dismisses the appeals of seamen of the steamers Orari and Limerick against the convictions and fines records against theSm for refusing to proceed to sea as transports. The judgment, which dissents from the decision of Lord Justice Coleridge, opposes the view that the face of war having been proclaimed is sufficient ground for cancelling a contract of employment, because it did not a template a state of war when 'that contract was made. In tho oa«e? under review, at tlia outbreak of the war the crews of the steamers Orari and Limerick refused duty when the ships were converted; into transports, contending that they were at liberty to I'reak the contract by reason of the increased risk. The mien were prosecuted, and Mr D. G. A. Cooper, S.M., convicted them, holding that the risk was not greater, but oven less than if they were engaged on an ordinary trading voyage. The decision was appealed against. In giving judgment this afternoon. His Honour held that, inasmuch as the Magistrate Siad Nfjtybnd tjhat' there was no irtqre£j>s.ed' (risk, he was bound to accept that. He referred at some length to the recent English case of Lister v. the s.s. Carpathian. That particular vessel set out from London to Port Arthur Texas, for oil. Just before returning, the war broke out between England and .Germany, and the crew refused to go to isea without extra remuneration, owing to the proximity of German cruisers in the Atlantic. The master agreed; to pay each mai £l3 additional, but on arrival Horn the owners repudiated the contra <• In a King's Bench case, heard b*. fore Lord Justice Coleridge, t.l cision was in favour of the men« Sir Robert Stout said he could not agree with the . finding. The appeal was accordingly dismissed, but as the appellants wlere seamen, costs on the usual scale were not allowed.