MAGISTRATE UPHELD

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 794, 15 October 1929, Page 14

MAGISTRATE UPHELD

MAINTENANCE CASE WRIT REFUSED POWER OF THE BENCH Holding: that a magistrate has no power to hear an application for vari- j ation or cancellation of a maintenance order originally made by the Supreme Court, Mr. Justice Smith today refused to issue a writ of mandamus against Mr. G. X. Morris, the Whangarei I stipendiary magistrate, to compel him to hear such an application. The motion for the mandamus writ was moved by Stanley Walter Bean Wilson, of Whangaruru. who applied to Mr. G. X. Morris, S.M., to vary and cancel an order for maintenance made in favour of his divorced wife by the Wellington Supreme Court. The magistrate had declined to hear the application on the ground that he had no jurisdiction. A magistrate, said his Honour, was authorised to hear proceedings up to a fine and imprisonment for non-pay-ment. on an order made by the Supreme Court, but he was not empowered to hear proceedings against an order.

The Supreme Court was the only court that could hear applications for variation, modification or suspension cf a maintenance order originally made by the Supreme Court in divorce proceedings, continued the judge. The defendant could always apply to the Supreme Court for variation of the order, which, if granted, then placed the matter within magisterial jurisdiction.