EXPECTATION OF LIFE

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22317, 3 February 1938, Page 12

EXPECTATION OF LIFE

a COMPENSATION CLAIMS FOR LOSS COMMENT BY THE CHIEF JUSTICE (Press abbociatioii tklegram.) WELLINGTON, February 2. The legal position of claims for compensation for the loss of expectation of life by dependants of a person killed as a result of negligence was the subject of comment by the Chief Justice (the Rt. Hon. Sir Michael Myers). Summing up in a case in the Supreme Court, his Honour said there appeared to him to be something revolting in the idea of living persons making profit out of the death of another; but it was the law. As a result of amendments to the law on the question, certain difficulties had arisen, and his Honour hoped that the Legislature would soon put an end to them.. _ . ~. As an illustration ot the effect of the present legislation, his Honour said a man and his wife might have four children. They might be out for a drive in a car, with three of the children, when an accident occurred, and all five were killed. The fourth child would have a cause of action—in the first place against the person responsible for the death of thG father, if there was negligence. His Honour said he was assuming that all five lived for a day or two after the accident, because if they did not. according to the law as laid down . in England, there was no cause of action. Apparently a cause ot action only rose if there was an appreciable space of time between the accident and death. „ , There was then the loss of the father’s expectation of life. It was true that any sum recovered went first to the payment of debts, and then to disbursements under the will, if there was a will. There was a similar loss of expectation of life of the mother and of the other children. That seemed to him to be making a profit out of the deaths.