LAWSUIT OVER COPPERS

Evening Star, Issue 19666, 20 September 1927, Page 4

LAWSUIT OVER COPPERS

THREE APPEALS IN SIX YEARS For six years Mr Martial Boyer, a Paris cabaret manager, has been carrying on a bitter dispute with the French Republic over a sum of 83 centimes, or a trillc more than L)d (states the London 1 Daily Chronicle ’). The lawsuit which he began against the Republic in 192 L was opened afresh recently before''tho Court of Appeal at Orleans. . In 1921 a soldier look two friends to Mr Boyer’s cabaret. The soldier was about to pay for tickets when Mr Boyer recognised him as a comrade with whom he had served during the war. Ho refused to allow him to pay for the tickets, and paid in tho six francs, which tho tickets cost, to tho box office. A few days afterwards tho tax inspector claimed tho sum of 83 centimes, the tax on the three free tickets. Mr Boyer maintained that the charge was illegal, hut lost his case in court, the judgment being a lino of 1,000 francs and five times the amount of the tax—4 francs 15 centimes. Mr Boyer appealed—it was March, 1925, by this time. He won because tho judge decided that an amnesty Act which had been passed since the first hearing covered the case. But this did not please the fiscal authorities, and a furtlicr appeal.by them followed. On this it was decided that half of the 83 centimes was entertainment tax and the other half belonged to a national fund for tho poor. The judge decided that Mr Boyer had been amnestied as regards the State tax, but not as regards "the obligatory contribution to the poor fund. Therefore the fine had to be 500 francs plus five times the half of 83 centimes. Mr Boyer then appealed again, but as yet no decision has been reached. Mr Boyer’s chief counsel is Maitrc de More Gliassern, perhaps the most eminent advocate in France to-day. He is often being called “The Carson of France.’’