ACCIDENT DAMAGE.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19888, 27 March 1930, Page 9

ACCIDENT DAMAGE.

QUESTION OF LIABILITY. (.PRESS ASSOCU.TIOB TXLEGBAV.) NEW PLYMOUTH, March 26. Whether the father is liable to pay damages sustained through the collision of his car driven by his daughter with another car wa« the point for decision in an appeal against the decision of the Magistrate that C. A. P. Wood must pay £295 to Andrew Freyne and Thomas B. Freyne. Cars driven by Miss Wood, aged 18, and Freyne collided, with heavy damage to, aach. The Magistrate! held" that Miss Wood's negligence caused the collision, and awarded Freyne damages. Mr Justice Reed, in his reserved judgment on appeal, said the question was whether appellant could be held responsible for damages. The point was whether she could be held to be the agent or servant of her father. The case of the Timaru Borough Council v. Squire had been the precedent on which the Magistrate had held she was the agent or servant. His Honour said that since the Timaru decision had been given, circumstances had changed. In modern usage the father's car became the family's car, and w»s driven by various members of it. If, therefore, when a youth was driving his father's car he was on his own frolic, the law should not presume to the contrary. It wa6 desirable that parents should be held responsible for the negligence of their children when in charge of the parentis car. It was the business of the legislature to say so, and the Courts should be required to enter into a microscopical examination of evidence to see if it was possible" to pick out something from which it might be inferred that a child was on the father's business when the negligence occurred. The appeal was upheld, and as an .mportant question of law was involved, leave was granted to appeal to the Court of Appeal. . Mr Justice Reed added that in his opinion the Magistrate was justified in finding that Miss Wood's negligence was responsible for the oollision.