FARMERS NONSUITED

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 38, 13 August 1935, Page 14

FARMERS NONSUITED

CLAIM FOR FIRE DAMAGE

POWER BOARD'S ACTION

(By Telegraph—Press Association.)

CHRISTCHURCH, August 12.

A decision of importance to power boards throughout the Dominion was given by the Magistrate, Mr. E. C. Levvey, today, when he non-suited two Mid-Canterbury farmers, W. M. Mackay and T. B. Mackay, in a claim against the Ashburton Electric Power Board.

The claim, of £97, was for damages suffered by the plaintiffs when the power was turned on in a broken wire and set fire to grass, fences, and wheat on their property.

For the board Mr. C. S. Thomas submitted that far from being negligent it had taken good precaution. The electricity supply regulations provided for the automatic reclosing of devices after a circuit-breaker had cut off the current in a line where a fault was suspected. Under the latest regulations reclosing devices were allowed to be worked three times, but because of the dry season and for other reasons the board had cut out automatic reclosing and had instituted one reclosing device worked by hand. The fact that the board's 'risk was narrowed down to one reclosing instead of three showed that its standard of care was well within the regulations.