CAR COLLISION CASE

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 March 1937, Page 14

CAR COLLISION CASE

APPEAL TO PRIVY COUNCIL

[per press association.]

CHRISTCHURCH. March. 13

Final leave to the defendant to appeal to the Privy Council from the judgment of the New Zealand Court of Appeal in the Christchurch case of Godfrey v. Gilbert, was granted by the Court of Appeal in Wellington this week.

Mr F. C. Spratt (as agent for Mr C. S. Thomas) appeared in support of the motion, and Mr A. 11. Cavell. plaintiff’s solicitor, on her behalf. Conditional leave to appeal was granted. tho defendant on September 14 last.

The case was originally heard in Christchurch in May, 1936, before Mr Justice Northcroft, the plaintiff being Katherine Augusta Godfrey and the defendant Frank Wayland Gilbert. The claim arose out of a collision (resulting in the death of the plaintiff’s husband) between cars driven by God" i’rey and the defendant on December

31, 1935, at an intersection on the Cust-Wcst Eyreton road. At the trial the jury found that Gilbert was negligent in driving his car at an excessive speed and failing to stop in time to avoid the accident. It also found that Godfrey was negligent in failing to stop in time to avoid the accident and in tailing to observe the light hand rule, but that the effective and substantial cause of the accident was the negligence of Gilbert. The jury awarded Mrs Godfrey .£l5OO for herself and £.'500 for her child. Beth plaintiff and defendant moved for judgment, but judgment was entered for Gilbert. From this judgment the plaintiff appealed to the Court of Appeal, judgment being delivered in her favour on August 14, 1936. In a dissenting judgment the acting-Chief Justice (Sir John Reed) held that -the jury’s findings were defective and considered' that there should be a new trial. The majority of the Court, however, Mr .Justice Smith, Mr Justice Johnston, and Mr Justice Fair, upheld the appeal and directed judgment to be entered in the appellant’s favour with costs on the highest scale as from a distance.