£515 FOR SLANDER

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1048, 12 August 1930, Page 1

£515 FOR SLANDER

QUARTERLY DIVIDENDS, LTD., PAYS OUT ENGINEER’S CLAIM Press Association DUNEDIN, Today. Damages totalling £515 were awarded in the Supreme Court in a case in which Daniel Moir, an engineer, proceeded against Quarterly Dividends, Limited, and National House Purchase, Limited, in an action for libel and slander. The statement of claim set out that in November last David N. Johnston, local secretary of the companies for New Zealand, was convicted in Invercargill of false pretences and at the trial plaintiff was one .of the four witnesses who gave important evidence for the prosecution. On February 16 William Taverner, acting with the authority of defendant, falsely and maliciously published concerning plaintiff a circular letter in which he accused plaintiff and the other three witnesses of perjuring themselves at the trial. LETTERS SENT BY WIFE Other claims were made in respect to letters sent by Taverner’s wife to members of the scheme accusing plaintiff of embezzlement, theft and also in respect of a statement made by Taverner at a meeting of subscribers that plaintiff had been guilty of theft and perjury. The action was not defended, but mention was made of a letter in which Taverner stated that he had been called to England on account of an operation to his wife’s teeth and asked for an adjournment for a year. Counsel for plaintiff stated that defendant companies were incorporated in England and carried on financial operations in New Zealard. Taverner came to Dunedin in July from Auckland and endeavoured to force a settlement; but plaintiff had refused.