Contractor, Badly Hurt In Collision Awarded £19,462

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28518, 22 February 1958, Page 15

Contractor, Badly Hurt In Collision Awarded £19,462

(New Zeaiana Press Association)

INVERCARGILL, Feb. 21. After deliberating for more than five hours and a half the jury awarded a total of £19,462 16s 6d damages to a 48-year-old Winton contractor, Arthur Ernest Jesperson to-night. The claim, for £22,600 general and special damages, was brought by Jesperson (Mr C. N. B. French), against the Otapiri Transport Company, Ltd. (Mr R. P. H. Hewat) and a second defendant, the Southland Ditching Company, Ltd. (Mr J. R. Mills, with him Dr. I. L. M. Richardson). The claim arose from an accident on the Hundred Line on March 6, 1956, when a light truck in which Jesperson was a passenger crashed into a stationary

sheep lorry owned by the Otapiri Transport Company. The truck was driven by Walter Pagan, an employee of the Southland Ditching Company of which Jesperson > ’ is a director and shareholder bbtf, ’' was, at the time, an employee. ■ ~, The basis of the claim was that the two defendants' employee* were to blame for the accident and that as a result pfJVUi'e plaintiff was permanently-crippled and had suffered heavy financial losses. The defendants had .steed to a claim of £1412 for . out of pocket expenses. ••• The juty &e damages. 58 per cent, ta tbdfransport company and -42*>pes eent to the ditching company. " *»*-' I