Auckland Man Sued For $US2 Million

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32068, 16 August 1969, Page 1

Auckland Man Sued For $US2 Million

(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, August 15. A Manurewa man is being sued for a total of $U52,425,000 as a result of a motor accident in which seven people died in Hawaii on July 5.

He is Mr Norman Westley,

aged 29, married, of Bettina Place, Manurewa, who was a steward with Air New Zealand at the time of the accident.

Three suits amounting to $U52,425,000 have been filed in the Circuit Court at Honolulu against Mr Westley by attorneys acting on behalf of relatives of six Honolulu persons killed in the accident. An Auckland air stewardess was tbe seventh person to lose her life in the crash, which happened near Honolulu Airport. The three suits named Mr Westley as the driver of the car which caused the accident, an Auckland lawyer acting for Mr Westley, Mr R. L. Maclaren, Said today. Because there was doubt about whether Mr Westley was driving at the time tbe suits also charged him with negligence for allowing the stewardess, Miss Pamela Featherston, aged 23, of Takapuna, to drive the car when the accident happened.

Mr Maclaren said the suits would be defended. He would go to Honolulu for the trial, which he expected to take place about a year from now. "Attorneys who act for the Hawaiian Insurance and Guarantee Company, with whom Mr Westley was insured, will represent him and I will assist them,” he said. Mr Maclaren said that he understood the amount of the insurance cover was only $100,009.

“I have never acted in a suit anywhere near as big as this,” he said. Mr Westley suffered serious cuts and back injuries in the accident.