SUPREME COURT Decision Reserved On Setting Aside Award

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31028, 6 April 1966, Page 12

SUPREME COURT Decision Reserved On Setting Aside Award

In the Supreme Court yesterday Mr Justice Macarthur reserved his decision on an application to set aside a jury’s’ award of £3148 to an able seaman who broke both legs when he fell from the bosun’s chair of a fishing trawler at Lyttelton. At a hearing last month Mr Justice Macarthur entered judgment for Peter Arthur James Clough for the damages against the owners of the trawler, B. G. Masson, Ltd., but granted the company (Mr C. B. Atkinson) 21 days to move for a non-sUit or setting aside of the judgment.

Mr Atkinson contested the award on the grounds that the jury had erred in deciding that the accident was caused by negligence on the part of the company in maintaining on the trawler, the John Dory, for use by employees rope which was in a dangerous or defective condition.

For Clough, Mr P. T. Mahon said the jury’s verdict could be supported on either of two grounds, the first being that the rope, which snapped causing Clough to fall, was in suspect condition.

Second, the company had

failed to inspect the ropes on the vessel at regular intervals. If inspections had been made the defect in the rope would have been detected.