PEDESTRIAN HURT

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 36, 11 August 1936, Page 5

PEDESTRIAN HURT

NO NEGLIGENCE

DRIVING IN RIGHT-OF-WAY

After an hour- and a half's consideration a jury in the Supreme Court yesterday afternoon found that Albert James Walling (Mr. E. D. Blundell) had not been negligent in an accident in--a right-of-way off Courtenay Place in which >William Elton, a drainlayer (Mr. R. Hardie Boys) was crushed by a lorry driven by the defendant. Elton claimed £250 general damages, and special damages totalling £65. His Honour Mr. Justice Smith was on the. Bench. - ' .\'"..-~. :Mr. Blundell commented to the jury that a weaker and more fabricated: claim had seldom been heard infa"' running-down case, and suggested that the plaintiff was suffering from a malady iwith which lawyers, at all events, were very familiar —"compensationitis." After "The Post" went to press yesterday the defendant concluded his evidence. He said he took the usual driving precautions, and did not ;;ee the plaintiff When he started to back; hef must' have come from the safetyzone' near a petrol pump. To Mr. Bpys Walling said he did not. know until the following week that Elton had been hurt, and he was told; that he was suffering merely from bruises. " ■•.-..-. Lewis Francis Paul Taylor, factory manager for. E. T. Taylor and Co., said he saw the defendant before he: started to back, and at that time there was no pedestrian in the right-of-way. For a number of years it had been a strict rule of his firm that the right-of-way was not for the use of pedestrians. . Mr. Blundell, in his address to the jury, said the mere fact that Elton was injured did not entitle him to damages; the plaintiff was bound to show that the responsibility lay with the defendant. The allegation against the defendant of driving at an. excessive speed had been flung in without any evidence to support it—the size and weight of the lorry and the narrowness of the entrance prohibited- any but the slowest pace, , Walling did all heshould ,in:tne'circumstances to keep a proper lookHOUt, and that was the crux of the;whole case; he could not steer clear "of :■ the plaintiff because he could notiget.off the correct angle of travelling'in the right-of-way,, and there was' evidence that the horn was sounded before he backed over the footpath in Courtenay Place. Mr.; Boys, in his address, contended that the plaintiff had done everything anybody could do to avoid the lorry. There was no doubt that Elton! was in the right-of-way, yet Walling did not see him. If Elton had come to Court to lie, as was suggested, he could have made a better job of it. The jury-retired at 4.30 and at 6 o'clock.