APPEAL COURT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 110, 30 October 1911, Page 2

APPEAL COURT.

A SOLICITOR SUSPENDED. By Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington, Saturday. In the case against John Lundon, an Auckland barrister, the Appeal Court ordered him to be suspended for, twelve months from fourteen days after date, and pay costs, £45. The court first laid down that it was not necessary to establish that accused was guilty of any breach of the law. It was sufficient to be guilty of serious professional misconduct. After careful and thorough examination of the evidence the court found that the Law Society had more than established its case. Lundon obtained an interview with Hadden by subterfuge. The court believed Hadden's evidence from first to last to be in substance true. At almost every stage it was corroborated by Shelton. These two witnesses could not be disbelieved without coming to the conclusion that there was a concerted conspiracy to ruin Lundon by false charges. The evidence was further corroborated by Sub-Inspector Harding. The result, in the court's opinion, was ! that Lundon, in obtaining from Hadden an order for payment of money, was guilty of false pretences, which brought him within the criminal law, but they were satisfied that his primary design was only to obtain control of a Bensational criminal case, and obtaining money was only an incident. They did not think it necessary that a ociminal prosecution should follow, as the offender would be sufficiently punished by I these proceedings. The court then spoke of Lundon's conduct as deserving of most severe reprobation, as an aggraI vated case of professional misconduet, and his defence as being founded on , statements wilfully false.