SETTLED BY TOSS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 435, 20 January 1933, Page 2

SETTLED BY TOSS

HEAVY LIST CAUSES JUDGE TO ADVOCATE SPIN OF COIN There is no record to show that King Solomon ever told two litigants to go outside his court and toss a eoin to deeide knotty questions (says the Sydney Daily Telegr aph ). That was probably because there were fewer aecidents in hiis day, and the court lis't was not cluttered with breach of promise and libel aetions. ' Nowadays Jddges have not the time to sit back and study the psychological aspect of cases. Last month in the Melbourne Industrial Court Chief Justice Dethridge told the Liquor Trades Federation to toss over a matter of £600 with the Victorian hotelkeepers. The federation won. A case that might have delighted Solomon was one in the Sydney District Court, in whieh the ownership of a dog was disputed. The dog took the law into his "hands)" so to speak, and followed the plaintiff around. the court. The plaintiff got the dog. I ' ' ' ' " A case which ended in the solicitors , tossing for costs also came up in th'e District Court recently. The suggestion was made by the Judge in order to save time. In one dispute over a dog the animal, a fox terrier, was taken into the Domain, where the two disputants started to whistle it. It chased a passing car, and the policeman and court ofiicials spent a strenuous halfhour before the dog was returned to the 'custody of tlie Court, where its* ownership'' was decided in' a strictly legal manner. ' '