COURT DECISION QUASHED

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23302, 12 April 1941, Page 3

COURT DECISION QUASHED

—-♦ - IMPROPER CONVICTION OF CAR PASSENGER (P.A.) WELLINGTON, April 10. The Court of Appeal yesterday afternoon delivered judgment in the case of Crown versus Norman Harrison. The case was heard on March 31. Harrison had been charged in Auckland in October last with being intoxicated in charge of a truck, and, by act or omission, causing bodily injury to Stanley Robert Nixon. He had algo been charged, as the driver of the vehicle, with failure to stop, failure to ascertain whether injury had been caused, and failure to render all practicable assistance. Alfred Beard Talbot had been charged with negligently driving the same vehicle and causing injury to Nixon, and faced, as driver, counts similar to the second, third, and fourth counts against Harrison. The jury found Talbot guilty of negligent driving causing injury, and acquitted him on the other three counts. Harrison was acquitted on the first count of causing injury while intoxicated in charge, but was found guilty on the other three counts. Talbot was sentenced to three months’ hard labour. The Court held that Harrison was improperly convicted on charges of failing to stop, failing to ascertain whether Nixon had been injured and failing to give all practicable assistance to Nixon, by reason of the facts that the jury had found that Talbot was the driver of the car when Nixon was struck and that the same jury had acquitted Talbot on similar charges. An order was made quashing the convictions of Harrison. “Misdirection” The Court of Appeal also delivered judgment in the case of Crown versus Henry Lodovic Martini, heard on March 31. The Court held that there had been a misdirection of the jury on questions of law by the trial judge at the trial in Auckland in February and ordered a new trial to be held at the next sittings of the Supreme Court at Auckland.