COSTLY PLAYFULNESS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 922, 15 March 1930, Page 10

COSTLY PLAYFULNESS

WOMAN SLAPS FRIEND ON SHOULDER Ihe hail-fellow-well-met business is all right in its way, but heartiness can be overdone, and thus become an actionable trespass, according to a Hull County* Court judge, says an English exchange. Mrs. Seaton Smith, of Scarborough, at an intimate at home party of friends, including Mrs. Reed, a steamship manager’s wife, sat talking for some time when Mrs. Reed jumped up and slapped her hostess on the shoulder, saying, “Now, let’s have tea. “Oh, Maudie, you’ve hurt me,” cried Mrs. Seaton Smith. A doctor gave evidence that her arm was useless for many weeks owing to muscular atrophy. The defence contended that Mrs. Reed could not have reasonably anticipated such consequences. She did not slap in anger. It was not assault and battery, though perhaps not the highest form of humour. The judge held that it was a good, hard, but not malicious blow. It was, however, actionable for trespass quite outside the common usages of social intercourse. He awarded the plaintiff £47 for medicinal treatment, and £2O for pain and suffering, with costs.