Widow Awarded $3780 Damages

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31440, 5 August 1967, Page 38

Widow Awarded $3780 Damages

(New Zealand Press Association) DUNEDIN, August 4. A jury in the Supreme Court today awarded a woman whose husband was killed in a motor collision on June 13, 1965, $3780 general damages.

Mrs Jean Bourgeois, aged 46, mother of four dependent children, had claimed $40,000. Another man injured in the collision, Charles Alfred Rogers, aged 44, a former clerk, at the Ministry of Works, Otematata, who claimed $2OOO general damages was awarded $1222. The Chief Justice (Sir Richard Wild) presided. Mr I. H. Main, of Oamaru, with him Mr J. M. White, appeared for both plaintiffs. Mr L C. Robertson appeared for the first defendant, Cecil Alistair Nightingale, a painter of Oamaru, and Mr J. B. Deaker for the second defendant, James Andrew Nolan, a Ministry of Works clerk. The damages were awarded against the second defendant, Nolan, who was found to be negligent in a manner contributing to the death of Mr Bourgeois and the in juries suffered by Mr Rogers. Nightingale was found to be without blame.

The claim arose from an accident three miles from Kurow. A car driven by Nolan overturned and came to rest on its wheels across the roadway. Later the stationary vehicles was struck by Nightingale’s car which was returning from Otematata to Oamaru.

The jury found Mr Bourgeois 75 per cent to blame for his death and Mr Rogers 55 per cent to blame for his injuries. Summing up, his Honour

said the jury might think that anyone who suffered from a road accident should as a matter of social justice be compensated in much the same way as a worker was now compensated. Many people believed this should be so, but it was not the law. Negligence had to be proved before compensation could be obtained.