HUGE FORGERIES

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2410, 16 March 1915, Page 6

HUGE FORGERIES

CHARGE AGAINST JOSEPH EARLE 1 HERMANN. . J (By Telegraph—Press A'ssn.—Copyright.) ' (Rec. March 15, 9.55 p.m.) f I Sydney, March 15. a At the trial of Joseph Earle Her- t mann on three counts of forging ahd C ■uttering promissory notes involving a £17,391, the evidence for the Crown r t stated that the defendant conducted i; company formation and the managing e of investments. ' In April, 1914, Her- s mann discounted three promissory notes 'J with Hermann. Wallraff, manager of C Renter's Banking Department, pur- 1 porting to have been sent to and sign- f pd by a certain Triggs, a well-known r grazier. Counsel stated that Triggs c would swear that the documents did not represent transactions with him, I and that the signatures were forgeries. 1 Counsel for the defence argued that i the defendant had no knowledge of the i promissory notes. He admitted that !i if he had then 'ho must be ghilty. e Defendant was suffering from a violent « type of epilepsy, and a plea of in- a sanity was entered. a [Hermann was formerly a director of t the firm of Bowron Bros., Ltd., of New I Zealand.] s At the opening of the trial defendant ( applied for an adjournment to await, ( "de bene esse," the examination of Wil- s liams, manager of the Mount Oxide * Minos (in liquidation), and plaintiff's ac- t tion against Sir Albert Gould, F. W. i Bacon, G. F. Allen, T. B. Berbeck, and s J. Earle Hermann, Limited. Deponent's v affidavit stated that numerous charges v of fraud were contained in a statement ® of claim allegiug that the deponent's co- * directors were liable for negligence in ' not dismissing him. The damages claim- | ed amounted to £25,000 Deponent de- | sired to repel the charges and protect * the other defendants. He proposed to e call sixty (-witnesses. • * The Judge refused the application.' The term "de bene esse" may perhaps be translated "for what it is J worth." To take or do a thing "de 1 bene esse" is to allow or accept for the 5 present, till' it comes to be more fully examined, and then to stand or fall ac- j cording to the morit of the thing in its own value. Taking evidence in a Chan- £ eery suit "de bene esse" is to take it out of the regular course—a temporary v and conditional examination. -j