Plaintiff Succeeds In Claim Against Three Assisted Immigrants

Wanganui Chronicle, 13 October 1948, Page 6

Plaintiff Succeeds In Claim Against Three Assisted Immigrants

WELLINGTON, Last Night (PA). —Judgment for the plaintiff was given by Mr. Hanna S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court today, in a case in which Matheson Minster, Ltd., claimed damages for breach of contract against three worn 0 " assisted immigrants, Joan McHugh, het mother. Mrs. 'Martha Ellen McHugh and Celia Power. The plaintiff claimed £54 Is 8d each from Mrs. and Miss McHugh, and £5B 6s 3d from Miss Power, being passage money, and £2O from each defendant for loss of production since the defendants left their employment. Two thirds of the passage money claimed was allowed in each case, with general damages of £5 from Mrs. McHugh and Miss Power and £3 from Miss McHugh. Mr. Hanna considered that the allowance of two thirds of the amount claimed in respect of passage money would be just, as the defendants had worked nearly one of the three years provided for in the contracts. For the defendants Mr. R. Stacey moved for a nonsuit on the grounds that the agreement was too vague for a claim for damages, and that the company had not established that there was any monetary loss as the i-esult of the defendants leaving. Mr. Hanna decided to hear evidence. Mrs. McHugh said she had been told in England that she would eventually become a demonstrate) and supervisor. She had been a demonstrator in England. After a year at Matheson Minster it appeared that she would be kept three year* on the machines. Accommodation had also been promised them on arrival in Wellington, but they had had to find their own. The other defendants also said the conditions were not as they had expected.