LIBEL SUIT

Hokitika Guardian, 30 September 1932, Page 6

LIBEL SUIT

AGAINST UNION SECRETARY. (Per Press Association — Copyright.) WELLINGTON, September 29. At th e Magistrate’s Court, Mr McNeil, :S.M., gave judgment.for E. Kennedy, the. Secretary of the- Federated Cooks’ and Stewards’ Union, who was the defendant in, an action in which David Stewart, ship’s steward, claimed £.50 damages in respect of the publication by Kennedy of statements alleged by Stewart to be libellous. The •' Magistrate awarded costs amounting to £4 16s against plaintiff. The libels alleged by plaintiff were that th e defendant, in a note to Captain {Jessup, of Eckford and Company, had deleted; “I think you will find him a suitable man,” and had made statements which, the plaintiff alleged, meant that he had failed for more than twelve months to pay his Union subscriptions; that he had acted di--(lionestly in “failing to put him&elf right with his Union and act square” ; and that he was ✓not a member of the Union. ' Mir McNeil, S.M., found that it was established that the ' practice of deleting the words in question had been in use for some years in cases such as the plaintiffs’ where an employer asked the Union for a named man. He held, therefore, that, in the circumstances,, this deletion was not a libel of the plaintiff. He also found that the plaintiff had failed to keep his promise to Kennedy to pay something from his first pay, and the balance within a limited period in settlement of overdue Union fees. The plaintiff was tjiirfeen months in arrears with his Union fees, and the defendant’s action in removing 'him from the membership roll of the Union was in compliance with the rules.