SUPREME COURT Harbour Board’s Case In Damages Claim

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31224, 23 November 1966, Page 14

SUPREME COURT Harbour Board’s Case In Damages Claim

Damage to the m.v. Pukeko probably occurred at sea on a voyage from Wellington to Lyttelton, not in the Lyttelton Harbour Board’s dry dock, Mr P. G. S. Penlington said in opening the case for the defendant before Mr Justice Macarthur in the Supreme Court yesterday in a claim by Richardson and Company, Ltd., shipowners, of Napier, against the board. The company is claiming £2332 damages, alleging that damage to the keel plate of the Pukeko occurred as it was being docked in the dry dock at Lyttelton on January 8, 1964. The company alleges negligence on the part of the board.

Mr P. T. Mahon, with him Mr D. H. P. Dawson, appeared for the company. Mr R. A. Young, with him Mr Penlington, represented the harbour board.

Mr Penlington said the board denied negligence and denied damaging the Pukeko. The keel blocks in the dock were correctly aligned and the docking operation was normal. She settled on the blocks without damage.

He said that the Pukeko, on docking, had a droop at the forward end of about liin.

“We didn’t know of this then, but the droop was accommodated by the soft wood caps in a satisfactory manner. “We submit that the crushing of the soft wood caps is not evidence that the keel blocks were out of alignment but that they were accommodating the droop.” John Ledlie Hugh Gilmore, assistant dock foreman for the board, said there was nothing unusual about the docking operation of the Pukeko. He heard no noise as the ship came to rest.

He said he inspected damage to the forward part of the

keel plate and to the A strakes on both sides. There was damage where the blocks were touching and also in between them.

“I thought the damage might have been caused by pounding. I thought it wasn’t new damage because of the rust.

“When the hull was under repair I saw uniform damage for about 20ft. Nothing was done in docking which would loosen rivets.”

Thomas Griffiths Jones, dock foreman to the board, said the keel plate damage appeared worse between blocks. He thought it was caused by pounding at sea. Some rivets were so loose he could turn them with his Angers.