ACTION FOR LIBEL.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 August 1922, Page 5

ACTION FOR LIBEL.

£l5O DAMAGES AWARDED. “AN AVERAGE ADJUSTER.” Because of the publication of a certain paragraph in the magazine, Accountancy, Commerce and Insurance, an action for libel was heard at Wellington on Tues- 1 day, in the Supreme Court, before His Honor Mr. Justice Salmond, and a jury of whom Mr. A. B. Johnston was elected foreman. The plaintiff in the case was Victor Maurice Braund, of Wellington, an average adjuster, for whom Mr. M. Myers appeared; the defendants being Accountancy and Educational Publication*, Ltd., who were represented by Mr. W. Perry. The amount clayned as damages was £6OO, and the grounds of libel referred to the alleged false and malicious publication in the magazines referred to of the following words on June 30, 1921: “Short delivery.—We have just had the misfortune of reading a report by a so-called adjuster stating that short delivery is always a liability under the theft and pillage clause. Hie fee is £2 25.” Plaintiff contended that the words referred to were intended by the defendants to refer to himself, and were go understood by the magazine’s readers; and that the meaning conveyed by the words was that plaintiff, although publicly practising as an. average adjuster, was incompetent to a® practise; and that thus, in accepting fees from the public for opinions on insurance matters, he was committing' a fraud. Plaintiff, therefore, he said, was much injured in his credit and reputation, and for that reason claimed the damages asked for. For the defence, Mr. Perry denied the intention to give to the words complained of the interpretation placed, upon them by the plaintiff, as to his incompetency. The articles in the magazine, he said, were written to give educational information to insurance clerks; and the bona (idea and intention of the writer of the paragraph should receive consideration. Names were never mentioned by insurance clerks, who brought the magazine any kind of difficult problem in insurance. Before the publication of this lar paragraph, said counsel, a certairf student had come to Hammond and) placed a decision before him, for which the 1 fee was £3 3s; but, to save any feeling in the matter. Hammond changed his fee and reduced it to £2 2s. Since that time a report had been supplied by Braund, yrhich. he took it. was the report to which the paragraph alluded. Had an expression of regret or apology been published in the magazine in relation to Braund. then the other adjuster* would have claimed a similar vindication. The jury returned after only a few minutes’ interval with a verdict for the plaintiff for £l5O. His Honor gave judgment accordingly, with costs according to scale.