DISTRICT COURT, GREYMOUTH,

Kumara Times, Issue 2750, 15 July 1885, Page 2

DISTRICT COURT, GREYMOUTH,

Monday, July 13. [Before His Honor Judge Broad.] D. WILLIAMS, APPELLANT, V. B. JAMES, DEFENDANT. The District Court was occupied the whole day bearing an appeal from a decision of the Warden’s Court, Kumara. The case was that of Williams, appellant, and James, defendant. The question of law involved was whether a wages man who had no miner’s right could appropriate money paid to him by his employer after he bad a miner’s right in liquidation of the wages due to him before he bad one. The Warden held that he could. Upon the hearing of the appeal it appeared that during the time the contract lasted the wages man had for a long time no miners’ right, and his employer had, and that when the wages man took one out the employer did not. There was also a question of disputed fact. Eventually the Court dismissed the appeal, holding that the parties were in pari delicto, and that the Warden was right in refusing any relief upon legal grounds, and also that there was ample evidence to sustain his finding upon the question of fact. The Judge distinctly declined to decide whether it was necessary for a wages man to hold a miner’s right in order to entitle him to recover wages, the decision of that point not being essential to the decision of the question before the Court.—Argus.