Appeal Against Decision Refusing New Trial

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29984, 20 November 1962, Page 12

Appeal Against Decision Refusing New Trial

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, Nov. 19. The Court of Appeal today adjourned an appeal brought by the Attorney-General against a judgment in the Supreme Court at Whangarei on February 15 last by Mr Justice Gresson refusing a motion for a new trial. The appellants in the c. :e are the Attorney-General, Evelyn Morna May, of Kaitaia, widow, Nelson Shannon Piermont Maria, of Kaitaia. farmer, and Grogo George Dragicevich, of Kaitaia, solicitor, as executors and trustees in the estate of the late Robert Bruce May, farmer. The respondents are Bruce Walter Absolum, of Auckland, contractor, and Colin Alfred Jackson, police constable, of Whangarei.

The case was one in which the plaintiffs, the executors and trustees of May were awarded £19,500 damages in respect of his death when the police car in which he was a passenger and driven by Jackson collided with the rear of a parked truck owned by Absolum, on the Kaitaia-Awanui highway. The jury held that Absolum was not guilty of negligence causing or contributing to the accident and that at the time

of the accident May was being conveyed on police business.

At the conclusion of the Supreme Court' trial the Attorney - General moved for a new trial upon the grounds that the jury’s finding t v at Absolum was not negligent • was against the weight of evidence. The amount of damages was not questioned.