OVER £3500.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 190, 14 August 1939, Page 8

OVER £3500.

CLAIM BY WIDOW.

DEATH OF HUSBAND. GREAT SOUTH ROAD MISHAP. A claim for £3500 general and £30 special damages by a widow, arising from the death of her husband as the result of a motor accident on the Great South Road on Sunday, February 26, 1939, came before Mr. Justice Ostler and a. jury in the Supreme Court to-day. Plaintiff was Mrs. Nancie Florence Cox (Mr. F. Haigh) and defendant Thomas Derrick, a farmer, of Auckland (Mr. J. B. Johnson). The plaintiff is the widow of Errol Spencer Cox, late of Hamilton. The statement of claim set forth that deceased was standing at the rear of a truck of which he va« the driver and which was stationary on the Great South Road. Deceased was on his way to Hamilton and defendant was also travelling south. Defendant, it was claimed, negligently drove his car so that it struck deceased and the rear of his truck. Cox, who was aged 31, died on February 27. He left a widow (the plaintiff) and a father and mother who had suffered loss of moneys by his death which they might have reasonably expected to joyA denial that the accident was the result of negligence on his part was issued by the defendant, who, however, otherwise admitted the allegations as to the accident in that he admitted that while proceeding south along the road his car struck deceased. He denied he was negligent and denied the allegations as to damages.

Mr. Haigh said on the day in question, Cox was returning to Hamilton from Auckland. In his truck was a compressor and a number of galvanised pipes, some of which extended over the end of the lorry. '"At about 8 p.m. lie was stopped opposite the Drurv School by a traffic inspector," said counsel. "He and the inspector went to the rear of the truck and discussed the overhang of the pipes. It was while they were talking that a car driven by defendant ran into Cox and he was impaled on some of the pipes. He died the next morning." Mrs. Cox said in evidence that her husband had been earning about £7 a week at the time of his death.

Detailed evidence of investigations he had made into the pecuniary loss suffered by plaintiff and the" deceased's parents because of the death of Cox, was given by a public accountant, George Gray Campbell. He was cross-examined at length bv Mr. Johnson regarding the calculation of expectation of life of Cox and his future earning power. Similar evidence was given by another public accountant, Dudley Xort.on Chambers. (Proceeding.)