$27,000 damages against bus company

Press, 22 June 1985, Page 16

$27,000 damages against bus company

PA Wellington Mount Cook Landlines, Ltd, has been directed to pay more than ?27,000 to the owners of a Wellington home extensively damaged when one of its buses rolled down a slope. Natver and Niru Patel claimed $27,528 from the company for damage done to their Miramar home on July 9, 1980. Mr Justice Quilliam in the High Court in Wellington gave judgment for the plaintiffs for the sum claimed, plus interest. The first defendant in the case was the bus driver, A. J. Boles de Boer, and the second defendant was Mount Cook Landlines Ltd.

In his judgment, Mr Justice Quilliam said the bus was parked outside the driver’s flat, facing downhill. The Patel home was at the bottom of the slope,

across an intersection. About 20 minutes after leaving the bus, Mr Boles de Boer heard a sound and went outside where he saw the coach had mounted the pavement, run down hill, demolished a bus shelter, and come to rest with its front through the wall of the Patel’s house and into their dining room. His Honour said there seemed no doubt that the coach’s handbrake was released by a trespasser gaining access through the driver’s side window which had no lock. “I consider this was entirely foreseeable and meant that there had been an obligation on the company to prevent its happening by any means reasonably available. This included putting some form of locking device on the window.”