DAMAGES CLAIMED.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 October 1917, Page 3

DAMAGES CLAIMED.

AGAINST COURT-MARTIAL OFFICERS. By Telegraph.—'Press Association. Wellington, Oct. 22. Acting on behalf of Samuel Edward Fitzgerald, to whose case reference was made in Parliament a few weeks ago, Mr. O'Regan has issued a writ claiming £IOO damages for wrongful imprisonment against the following officers comprising the court-martial, which sentenced plaintiff to 12 months' imprisonment: Captain Mac Donald, Lieutenant-Colonel' Pringle, Richard Kirk, barrister and solicitor, Captain Thring, Captain Salter, Captain Rewish, Colonel .T. E. Hume. The action is grounded on the allegation that the court-nmrtial was illegally constituted, as Mr. Kirk was not qualified to sit, being at the time an officer on the retired list. Also plaintiff was not in fact a deserter. It will be remembered that when the second reading of the Expeditionary Forces Amendment Bill was being considered in Parliament on the night of September 14, Mr. Webb drew attention to clause 10 being intended to act retrospectively, and the alleged purport of it was to legalise the tribunal by whom Fitzgerald was sentenced. The debate was adjourned, and has not since been resumed. Fitzgerald's sentence was remitted early in September, and he is new at Trentham.