Supreme Court NON-SUIT OF CLAIM AFTER FARM FIRE

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30121, 3 May 1963, Page 8

Supreme Court NON-SUIT OF CLAIM AFTER FARM FIRE

Liability for a gorse fire that swept down a valley at Whiitecliffte, doing an estimated £573 worth of damage, on the stormy night of September 15, 1959, was disputed before Mr Justice Wilson in the Supreme Court yesterday. After hearing evidence for the plaintiffs and argument by their counsel (Mr G. H. Gould) h<is Honour said he was not satisfied that the fire started at the point alleged. For this reason the claim would be non-suited. Costs were awarded to the defendants.

The plaintiffs were Godfrey Hamilton Hall, of Hororata, and Donald Edward Grigg, of Hickory Bay, trustees in the estate of George Bayntun Starky, of Whitecliffs. The defendants were David Neil Bates and Mary Copeland Bates, trustees in the estate of David Bates, of Whitecliffs (Mr R. W Edgley). The plaintiffs claimed £573 as the value of 156 hoggets and a chaffhouse destroyed in the fire and 24 hoggets injured in the fire. Outlining the claim, Mr Gould said that the manager of Starky’s estate, Edwin Sutton Rice, would say that the fire started from heaps of gorse sticks and roots after clearing work on the Bates estate. One heap on ploughed ground was seen to be burning brightly in the evening. The plaintiffs contended that a north-west wind fanned the fire and spread it to the Starky property. A Urge area of pasture, gates, and fencing were also burnt, but no damages were claimed in respect of them. The Bates estate did not dispute the value of £1 15s put on each sheep. What was disputed was liability. Rice, in evidence, said that after speaking to a neighbour. Henry Robb, who had telephoned, he saw that the whole of tlhe western horizon was bright red. He thought the burning fence would be about a mile away.

His Honour, looking at a map, said that the wind must have been coming from the south-west for the fire to reach the Starky homestead from the point alleged. Rice replied that heavy nor’-westers in that area often came down the Rakaia Gorge and swirled around, following the lie of the land His Honour: This fire must have travelled around to such an extent that it was travelling towards the north-east? Rice: Yes.

And at that stage could technically be described as a sou-wester?—Yes.

Alistair Taylor Robb, a freezing company clerk, said he was at home on annual

holiday on the night of the fire. He walked toward where he thought it had started. Thia was represented on maps and photographs as a point where three farma adjoined.

Robb said he sow two heaps of red-hot ash on the Bates property. Flying sparks were causing small tires in an adjacenit paddock. He stamped them out. To Mr Edgley, Robb said he lit fires frequently on the Robb property. He could not remember lighting fires while on holiday.