JURY AWARDS DAMAGES

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 November 1939, Page 4

JURY AWARDS DAMAGES

TRAM CONDUCTOR’S INJURIES

WELLINGTON. November 6

Saying that his friends called him “Al Capone” and “Scarface,” Cyril Frank Karsten, a tramway conductor. 23. claimed £5OO general damages and £l3/2/2 special damages, in the Supreme Court to-day, from the Wellington City Corporation. He was conductor on a tram travelling towards Island Bay on May 19, when another tram ran into the rear of it; he suffered injury to his nose and eyes; hut the main dispute in. Court was the fixing of damages for the scars; The Corporation admitted that the accident was caused by the negligence of the motorman in the second tram, and a jury of 12, after retiring lor 25 minutes, awai-detl £lOO general damages, and full special damages. The Chief Justice (Sir Michael Myers), in his summing up, said he would not be surprised if the jury though the amount claimed was not only excessive, but grossly exorbitant. Il' he were assessing the damage plaintiff would get only a very small proportion of the amount, claimed. Plaintiff’s capacity for work and earning his living has not been affected. Facial disfigurement was very much more serious for a woman than a man.