SUPREME COURT

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 273, 15 May 1912, Page 5

SUPREME COURT

THE CONINGHAM CASE. By Teleyraph—Press Association. Wellington, Yesterday. The jury, in the Coningham case, after a retirement for forty minutes, found that respondent committed adultery on the dates mentioned. The petition for a decree nisi was granted with costs against Coningham. WELLINGTON SESSIONS. Wellington, Last Night. The divorce case, John McVicker v. Emily Sarah McVicker, for dissolution of marriage on the ground of desertion, was to have come before Mr. Justice Chapman and a jury to-day. The petition was filed four years ago, when respondent obtained an order for security for Jier own costs, which was never complied with. Respondent was not herself in a position to take any action until just recently, when she waived the order and filed her answer asking for a dissolution on the ground of desertion. Mr. P. W. Jackson, counsel for petitioner, said that the matter was of so long standing that he had got out of touch with the husband. He had now located him at Napier. They were in communication, and counsel .was n waiting a letter. He mentioned that McVickers might not desire to go on with the petition, in which case the wife's prayer for relief would be heard as an undefended case. The matter is to be mentioned again.

The case in which Gray and Jackson, solicitors, sued Oliver Mewhinney for £245 5s 2d, balance of Mrs. Mewhiriney's costs, subsequent to the granting of* a decree nisi, was concluded in the Supreme Court to-day, before Mr. Justice Cooper. The Court's judgment was for the plaintiff for the bill of costs. His Honor said that he could not fix the amount, which was ordered to be referred to the Registrar of the Court for taxation up to the making and taking out of orders of June 9, 1910, and anything arising therefrom, but including the costs of the appeal, the parties to have the ordinary right of review on the registrar's taxation. The question of the costs of the present action was reserved.

DUNEDIN SESSIONS. Dunedin, Last Night. At the criminal sittings of the Supreme O-irt to-day, Susan Miller Wilson was fomd guilty of performing an illegal operation. 'Sentence was deferred. The jury, in bringing in their verdict, made a strong recommendation to mercy. Frederick Percy Evans, an ex-em-ployee of the Dunedin City Corporation, was found guilty of a series of offences, such as the theft of £lO, falsifying books, and forging an account on a voucher, and was sentenced to three years' imprisonment. A youth named Claude Osmond Barker was ordered to come up for sentence when called on for stealing a motor bicycle. Peter Henry Greig and James Alexander Creig were sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment and placed on proj hation for 12 months respectively for the theft of timber. j A charge of sly grog selling, preferred ■ against Margaret Andrews, was not completed when the Court rose.

CHRISTCHURCH SESSIONS. Christchurch, Last Night. The criminal sittings were continued to-day. The case of Robert James Wright, charged with attempting to carnally know a girl five years of age, was continued. The jury, after twenty minutes' retirement, found prisoner "not guilty." John Maine, convicted of entering a dwelling house bv night, was sentenced to three months' imprisonment. The trial of Walter Richard Sadler on a charge of unlawfully using an instrument with intent to procure a miscarriage has commenced. The Crown's evidence was similar to that given in the lower court. The defence was that the act was one of indecency only, and that no instrument was used and there was no intention to commit a crime. The trial is unfinished.