A NOVEL ACTION
AGAINST A MILITARY COURTMARTIAL,
A writ for JSIOOO damages for alleged wrongful imprisonment ins been issued by Mr. P. J. o"Regan on beUf of Samuel Edward Fitzgerald, of Wellington, seaman, ngajnst the officers who comprised the district court-martial by which, in March last, Fitzgerald was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment 011 a charge] of desertion. The defondants named m the writ are Captain Clarence Reginald Macdonald, ot -lrentham ; Lieutenant-Colonel David Rnngle, of Palmerston North; Richard Clement Kirk, of Wellington, barrister and solicitor; Captain "William Brouncher Thrinz, Wellington*; Captain Frank Herbert Salter, of Ctristchurch; Captain William Quayle %wish. of Auckland; and Colonel John Edward Hume of Palmerston North, TJiis owe was the subject of comment in the Home of Kepresentatives by Mr. R C. Webb, when ths Expeditionary Forces Amendment Bill was under consideration. Mr. Webn contended that clause 10 of the _ Bill, which was to be introspective in l» operation, was intended to legalise the tribunal bv which Ivitzgerald was sentenced. Fitzgerald's. sentence was remitted by the Goveitnor in September, and the plaintiff is najjff in camp, but it is understood that he- has been class<?<T as fit for home service only. The grounds for-the action for daiwfees are the allegation that the court-martial was lllegallv constituted, in that Mr. Kirk was not qualified to sit thereon, jbeing at the twin an officer on the Retired List; also that Fitzgerald was not in ibvt a deserter.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19171023.2.24
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 24, 23 October 1917, Page 4
Word count
Tapeke kupu
239A NOVEL ACTION Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 24, 23 October 1917, Page 4
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Dominion. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.