DAMAGES AWARDED

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 242, 9 July 1938, Page 13

DAMAGES AWARDED

Accident To Service Car By Telegraph—Press Association. Dunedin, July 8. After inspecting the scene of an accident in Kawarau Gorge yesterday Mr. Justice Northcroft sat again to-day to hear further evidence in a case in which the Mount Cook and Southern Lakes Tourist Company, Alexander' Grant Wigley (driver of a service car owned 'by the company which plunged from the road), and 11. H. Walker (attorney for Marie Van Temmens, of Sourabaya, Java, who was a passenger in the service car) claimed from Jack Beaumont Suisted and John Dickinson and Company, Ltd. (his employers), £lOOl/17/0 as damages arising from the accident. Messrs. E. J. Anderson and D. A. Solomon appeared for plaintiffs, and Messrs. J. S. Sinclair and J. I*Ward for defendants.

His Honour said that the accident arose from an emergency and it was not easy to determine the cause of that emergency. Reviewing the facts of the case, however, he was unable to make the assumption that the service car was travelling at an unreasonable speed. He believed . that defendant was too far out, and that his .position actually caused the emergency which arose. Plaintiffs were entitled to damages.

His Honour awarded damages totalling £685/17/0, made up as follows: Mount Cook Company, £328/19/-; Wigley. £227/5/-; -Madame Van Temmens, £129/13/6.