ALLEGED SLANDER

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXXVII, Issue 9205, 5 April 1938, Page 3

ALLEGED SLANDER

CLAIM AGAINST DH. JEENKINS

j LETTER TO BOARD CHAIRMAN | EVIDENCE BY MRS I. J. PADDOCK ! (Special to Telegraph) AUCKLAND, This Day. Claiming that certain statements alleged to have been made by Dr. Archibald Jenkins, medical superintendent of the Wailii hospital, were made falsely and maliciouly, Isabella jane Paddock, matron of the hospital, brought an action in the Supreme Court yesterday in which she sought to recover from Dr. Jenkins £4 0 0 special damages and £75 for mental strain and suffering. The claim is based upon statements alleged to be libellous and slanderous and alleged to have been made by Dr. Jenkins. Mr Fitzherbert appeared for the plaintiff and Mr Newbery for the defendant, the action being heard before Mr Justice Fair. Both the plaintiff and defendant were appointed on October S, 1935, the plaintiff as matron and the defendant as medical superintendent, the plaintiff commencing her duties on October 12, 1935, and the defendant on November 24, 1935. The plaintiff alleges that on dates set out in the claim the defendant falsely and maliciously wrote, and/or spoke, and published of the plaintiff to tho members of the Hospital Board certain words which were false in substance and were facetious, frivolous and vexatious. As a consequence, the plaintiff claimed that she had suffered considerable mental strain, that she had suffered in health, and her professional reputation has been impaired and that she has received three months’ notice of her dismissal from the hospital.

STATEMENT OF CLAIM In her statement of claim the matron set out a number of statements which she alleged had been made by Dr. Jenkins and which she alleged were slanderous. One statement was: “That the matron seemed quite unable to acquire the required nursing standard, or properly to undertake the management and discipline of the institution. In the theatre she did not appear to appreciate the meaning of the terms ‘septic’ and ‘sterile.’ and by her actions on three stated occasions had rendered certain of the operations unsterlle by mishandling instruments and operations themselves. Although the medical superintendent had repeatedly asked her to familiarise herself with the theatre instruments she still showed almost entire ignorance of them. . . . She had made mistakes and failed to carry out instructions in requirements in X-ray cases. ... In a recent maternity case the medical sueprintendent, on being called to the hospital, found that the whole of the trained staff, including the matron herself, were attending the Surf Club ball. The husband of the patient had to be sent for the matron.” The statement of claim included a letter alleged to have been written by the defendant to the chairman and others of the hospital board on July 17 of last year. The letter stated: “I wish to draw your attention to two further developments which make it urgently necessary for the safety of the patients to relieve the matron of her duties without further delay. On Wednesday evening I discovered that the matron had prepared a highly poisonous medicine for a patient’s eye far in excess of the strength ordered to her by me. When I drew her attention to it she falied to realise the seriousness of it and became quite incoherent and quarrelsome in her explanation.” Mr Fitzherbert outlined the case for the plaintiff at considerable length. He said that when the evidence he would call had been heard the conclusion could not be escaped that Dr. Jenkins showed a preference at the hospital for two sisters named Black.

The defence is a general denial of the statements, but submits that if the words complained of. were spoken by the defendant then they were spoken or published on a privileged occasion, without malice, and in the belief that the words were true.

PLAINTIFF’S EVIDENCE The plaintiff, a widow, in evidence, detailed her hospital experience in hospital institutions in England. She came to New Zealand, she said, in 1921, and was attached to hospital institutions and finally came to Auckland in 19 27. Among positions she held in Auckland was that of matron of the Anglican children’s hospital in Richmond road, and, after practising privately, she was appointed matron of the Waihi hospital in October, 1935. The two sisters Black joined the hospital staff in May, 193(5, one as senior sister and one as junior sister. The latter had applied for the position since vacated by witness. (Proceeding.)