LIBEL ACTION FAILS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2294, 12 September 1908, Page 2

LIBEL ACTION FAILS.

ACTION AGAINST A NEWSPAPER

His Honor Judge Rogers concluded Ins summing up in the District Court Sydney, in the ease of Pctterson v. Bennett, an action brought against the proprietor of the “Evoning News” for £IOO damages, in respect of an alleged lihollous report of a suit in the Divorce Court. His Honor said the law was that a report must bo an impartial and accurate account of wliat occurred at the trial. Did they regard the report as a one-sided sort of a report, and had it left out wliat really ought to have been put in ? As t 0 the report of his Honor’s summing up, ho did not see what fault there was to be found in that. For the rest, Hie report did not siy that cruelty was proved. It said that cruelty was alleged. Also, as lie said before, no reporter was supposed to give anything like a verbatim report of a trial —nor yet even a lengthy report. The paper would have no room for advertisements, or anything else, if every day the Divorce Court sat there were to be on exhaustive report of all that takes place there. Therefore, a report might be as condensed as the reporter chose. It might be as short ns he chose, so long as it was fair, and did not misrepresent in any way a party who took the case before the Court. It was for them to sav whether tlie report was an impartial and accurate account, put in a very condensed way, of wliat took place at the trial. If they thought that given in that condensed wav it unfairly left out something that ought to ho'said, they should return a verdict for the plaintiff.. He would remind them again that in tho_ report it did not say that the petitioner had been guilty of cruelty to his wife, but simply that it was alleged. The jury returned a verdict for the defendant.