SEAMEN'S DISCHARGES

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 204, 23 May 1919, Page 8

SEAMEN'S DISCHARGES

IMPOBTANT JUDGMENT. By Telegraph-Press Association. Auckland, Mav 22. Judgment was delivered by Mr. Justice Cooper at tho Supremo Court in the case in which certain officers and men of. the ship Lanral AVlialen proceeded against the vessel for the purpose of determining whether they wore entitled to their discharges. The plaintiffs were Matthew Hall Smith, chief engineer, representing the case of tho officers and those members of the crow who shipped at Vancouver, and John Shotskoo, representing that of several of the crew who shipped at Honolulu. Tho Laurel Whalen has beon lying in Auckland Harbour since January 2 last, while repairs were being made to the engines. < In tho course of his judgment in the ea«e brought by Smith, His Honour said that in his opinion the master was justified in the eourso he'took in making for Nfew Zealand, and for Auckland. His ship had lost -her auxiliary power, and it was necessary to restore it. Counsel for the plaintiffs had very fairly stated that they did not, suggest any impropriety in the course adopted by the master, and they aid not contend that he was not justified in coming to Auckland. The repairs, which had taken a long time, were being carried , out under the supervision of Lloyd's surveyor, and the repairs required by him will not he completed for at least three weeks from now. The master had declined to accede to tho request of certain officers- aud men of the crew for their discharge and passage back to Vancouver. The ship had sustained actual injury, not so great as to amount to actual loss, yet sufficiently serious to render her uiueaworthy until repairs had been carried out. The master could have justifiably discharged the c-rcw as soon as he found that a long delay was likely. The time limit for which the men had agreed to serve had now expired, and it was impossible to say when . the ship would leave Auckland for Vancouver. If the master had a right, to discharge tho men, but declined to exerciso the right, the men had surely tho correlative right to claim, if they desired to do so, their discharge. His Honour' held that tho plaintiffs wore entitled to a decree to this effect, and to payment of wages up to the time that their time of agreed service expired, on April 3. _' In the case brought' by Shotskoo, who is i of Russian nationality, His Honour withheld judgment pending the rfMilt of an inquiry that is b?injr mode by the authorities as to whether Russians can bo discharged at this port.