CLAIM FOR £20,000

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29990, 27 November 1962, Page 14

CLAIM FOR £20,000

Youth’s Career “Wrecked” (N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, Nov. 26. John Charles Turner, aged 18, a farm labourer, of Tauranga, whose ambitions of becoming a company executive were wrecked allegedly as the result of a physical impairment and personality change, was the plaintiff in a Supreme Court action today for £20,000 general damages.

The claim arose from a car accident in 1960. Tire defendant was Peter Apaapa, a labourer of Tauranga, and driver of the car, which collided with Turner’s power-cycle in Tauranga. The action is before Mr Justice Perry and a jury. lan Napier Sim, headmaster of Turner’s former school in Tauranga, said that before the accident, Turner was a conscientious student, well respected by both masters and fellow students. He was then in Form 4 General A. After the accident, he said, Turner returned to school in 1961 and joined Form 58. “I noticed a considerable change in the boy,’’ he said. “He tried in his school work most conscientiously, but to no avail.” Sim said he considered Turner would have passed School Certificate, judging by his fellow-students’ performance, if he had not had the accident. He said he would have recommended him for an executive post, but now he would not.

Mr G. S. R. Meredith, for the defence, said in his opening that this was rather unlike the general pattern of claims heard before a jury. In this case there was no dispute over liability. “The defendant merely asks you to assess what you consider would be a fair award of damages for the injuries and loss this young man has suffered,” said Mr Meredith.

The hearing will be continued tomorrow.