VERDICT REVERSED

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 274, 15 August 1936, Page 13

VERDICT REVERSED

Court Disagrees With Judge’s Action DAMAGES IN MOTOR CASE An appeal against the decision of Mr. Justice Northcroft in reversing a jury’s finding in favour of Katherine Augusta Godfrey, of Christchurch, widow of Francis Colthurst Godfrey, insurance inspector, and entering judgment for Frank W. Gilbert, storekeeper. of Gust, defendant in a motor collision case, was upheld by the Court of Appeal. In a judgment delivered at Wellington yesterday, Mr. Justice Smith stated it was open to the jury, as the lawfullyconstituted exponents of common sense, to say that the negligence of plaintiff’s driver was not so mixed up with the negligence of defendant as to make the negligence of plaintiff’s driver contributory to the cause of the collision. In his opinion, the appeal should be allowed, and judgment, entered in accordance with the verdict of the jury. Mr. Justice Johnston said that the verdict of the jury in not holding tha* both drivers failed to keep a good lookout could not be regarded as perverse, and once the jury came to the conclusion that defendant’s speed was excessive he thought other inferences could be drawn by them which, in his opinion, the court could not say no reasonable men could have reached. Mr. Justice Fair yyas not prepared to hold that the jury’s conclusion was one which 12 reasonable men might not have come to. Consequently he was unable to hold it to be against the weight of evidence. Dissenting, the Acting-Chief Justice (Sir John Reed) said that the findings showed confusion in the minds of the jury, which rendered it, in his opinion, unsafe to pronounce judgment for either party. He thought that a new trial should be ordered. Mr. A. T. Donnelly, with Mr. A. II Cavell, represented Mrs. Godfrey, the appellant, and Mr. C. S. Thomas and Mr. R. Twyneham the respondent Gilbert.