APPEAL COURT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 100, 3 April 1916, Page 6

APPEAL COURT.

A STRATFORD CASE. REX v. DOEG. Per Press Association. Wellington, April 3. The Appeal Court is occupied to-day in hearing the case, Rex v. Doeg. The latter obtained a verdict of £6OO damages and £92 costs for injuries received by colliding with a ballast train at a level crossing between Ngaere and Stratford while he was riding a bicycle. Against this verdict the Crown appeals. . . The Attorney-General (Hon. Mr Herdman), appears for the Crown, and Mr N A. H. Johnstone, of Now Plymouth, on behalf of respondent. Mr Johnstone raised a preliminary objection that the Crown had not taken the proper procedure—that no appeal lay, but that the Crown, if it was dissatisfied, ought to have moved for a new trial or have obtained leave at the trial to move for a nonsuit. He relied upon rules 286 to 283 of the code of Civil Procedure.

The Attorney-General relied upon section 66 of the Indicature Act, as giving the right to appeal. He contended the verdict was wrong, as there was no evidence to justify it; that it was the duty of the judge to determine whether a verdict was justified and to give such judgment as he thought fit, and that an appeal lies from judgment. Argument is proceeding. ABANDONMENT OF A CHILD. REX V. RUSSELL. Wellington, April 3. Judgment was delivered in the Court of Appeal in the case, Rex v. Elizabeth Russell. The Court held that though it may have been the intention of prisoner to get rid of the custody of the child or not be called upon to pay the Charitable Aid Board, that it does not, in this case, prove abandonment in the meaning of the Act. The Court ordered conviction to ho quashed. NEW TRIAL ORDERED. In the Crown case, reserved, Rex v. Adams and Carr, in which, the jury brought in a verdict of "Guilty with no criminal intent, the act having heen committed while under the influence of temporary insanity," the Court held that the meaning of the verdict was not free from doubt and ordered a new trial at the next criminal sittings of the Supreme Court at Wellington.