£1500 DAMAGES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 223, 20 September 1938, Page 10

£1500 DAMAGES.

AIRGUN ACCIDENT.

GIRL'S LOSS OF AN EYE.

CASE FROM BARGAVILLE. A claim by a #irl at Darguville (through her father) for £.'>(> 4/ special and £2000 general damages for the loss of her rijrht eye as the result of an air rifle accident came before Mr. Justice Quilliam in the Supreme Court to-day.

Pinintiff wae Joyce Manning, of Darguv ilia (suing by hor fatlier, .liunes Mil lining), tor wTiorn .Mr. A. L. Spenec appeared. Tl'e claim wns that w-lien cycling a loll" Viotoria Street. l>ar;.'H viile. on June !> last year she was struck in the right eye by a pellet from *m air rifle fired by Douglas Bagby. son of tlie defendant, Charles ,7nm*M "Bagby, gasworks manager, of Dargavillc. Plaintiff alleged that the pun was in « defective condition, and that defendant was negligent in not taking adequate, steps to prevent hia «on from wing the rifle. As a rcwnlt of the injury, plaintiff said she had lost the of the. rijiht eye, and tiie claim was nade hgainst the father of the. boy. Thrre w;;s no defene* filed. Plaintiff detailed the circumstances of the accident. Ft occurred, she said, when she was cycling aTong the street in Darfraville, and was struck in the rijrht eve by a pellet from an airjrun fired i>y Douglas Hafrby, a boy of about 12 years of She had to be. treated for about a fortnight in the Auckland Hospital ae an in-patient, and for some months later as an out-patient. The boy said he was firing at the spokes of her bicvcle.

I>r. W. A. FaireloHgh. ophthalmic surgeon, described the treatment of the injured eye at the Auckland Hospital, and the extent of the injury. He said that the eye was now useless for sight, and subject to a slight squint. James Manning, the girl's father, gave evidence of his knowledge of former use of the airgiin by the boy Douglas Bagby, and of the gun's defectiveness. He mentioned that there had been another incident connected with the same gun. in which a boy had been struck ill the neck by a pellet. "No amount I could award would compensate this unfortunate girl. She has *nn*ered not only the loss of the eye. but also disfigurement," said his Honor in awarding x.'>G 4/ special and £1500 general damages, with cost*. "I !ru«t " he added, "that this will not be a Pyrrhic victory, .Mr. Spence."