Thè "Shanghai Zaria," local Russian daily, brought an action before Judge Chen in the Second Special District Court in the French Concession yesterday to recover $500 damages for alleged trespass from Messrs. L, Ziskin, Russian chemist of 772 Avenue Joffre, and Mr. H, Rostognan, a sub-tenant of the same address, 'After calling evidence the court reserved judgment until Monday next, Mr, d'Auxion de Ruffe appeared for plaintiffs, The case arose out of the defendants' occupancy of the address named, which is next to the office of the. newspaper. It was alleged that early on the morning of April li, Mr, Rostognan with the permission of Mr. Ziskin from whom he had rented part of the premises, engaged several labourers to demolish a wall separating his part of the house from the "Shanghai Zaria." A complaint was made to the French police and the work was abandoned after a hole had been made through the wall, Counsel asked the court- to order defendants to restore the wall to its original. condition, Counsel told the court that defendants had caused considerable annoyance to the newspaper and had trespassed on its legal rights. Some time ago he said, they had to bring an action against the first defendant to make him remove a pharmacy signboard outside the office of the "Shanghai Zaria" 'The recent hole made in the wall, Mr, d'Auxion de Ruffe continued,' gave defendants access to a corridor which, he contended, was leased by the paper with that part of the house which they occupied, from the owners Messrs. Marcel Darre, For the defence it was contended that the corridor was for the joint use of the newspaper and defendants, Counsel argued that this was di proved by the fact that the newspaper in the past had always paid for the heating and lighting of the passageway, If the latter was intended for common use by the litigants, counsel declared, either the owners would have borne this expense or it would have been defrayed equally between the parties to the action. Counsel went on to submit that the corridor was intended for the exclusive use of his clients which, he pointed out, was stipulated in the lease which the "Shanghai Zaria" made with the landlords,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.