COURT’S AWARD OF £23 IN CLAIM FOR DAMAGES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22665, 16 June 1948, Page 3

COURT’S AWARD OF £23 IN CLAIM FOR DAMAGES

Judgment for the plaintiff, Harold Leon Matrovitch, carpenter, Te Hapara was given by Mr. E. L. Walton, S.M., in the Gisborne court yesterday on a claim for damages said to have been suffered in the vicinity of Makaraka at about 9 o’clock on the evening of January 1G when a bicycle which the defendant was stooping to pick up on the side of the main highway was struck by a motor car driven by the defendant, William Bruce McKenzie, farmer, Ormond. It was submitted for the defendant that his attention had been directed to the lights of an approaching vehicle and that though he saw the plaintiff before the impact and swerved to the right he had been unable to avoid striking the. bicycle. Two witnesses were called by Mr. K. Gillanders Scott, who appeared for the plaintiff, and evidence was given by the defendant, for whom Mr. M. R. Maude appeared. The magistrate held that the defendant had misjudged the distances and upheld the claim for £7 18s 6d in respect of damage to the plaintiff’s bicycle, but reduced to £lO the sum of £2O which had been sought as general damages. Costs, witnesses’ expenses and solicitor’s fees amounting to £5 3s were also allowed.