COUNCIL TO PAY

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 11954, 26 May 1933, Page 7

COUNCIL TO PAY

BROKEN SHOP WINDOW

STRUCK BY* FLYING STONE FROM ROAD

SURFACE WORK* NOT PROPERLY LONE

(Press Association) WELLINGTON, May 25. Holding that in view of the present state of traffic on hard-surl'aced roads the City Corporation’s practice of filling In street excavations and lcavi ing them unsealed is unsafe, Mr T. B. McNeil, S.M., gave judgment today in favor of Charles Edward Bell, who claimed £2l 17s .5d from thfo corporation.

Bell has a baker’s shop in South Wellington. The adjacent streets are surfaced with bitumen, and the corporation had laid a. drain which was filled in and finished off with metal. Before the excavation, it was stated, there were no loose stones about the street surface. The allegation was that a window broken in the shop was broken as a result of being struck by a flying stone from the wheel of a passing motor vehicleIt was submitted by thef'defence that there was no evidence of the window being broken by a stone from the drain.

Tiie magistrate said he had come to tbe conclusion, that it was a flying stone and the question was whether the corporation was liable. The weight of evidence, in his opinion, established that the .defendant’s practice, in view of the. present state of traffic on hard-surfaced roads, was not a safe one, and that this was recognised by the defendant and engineers familiar with road work. The evidence also showed! that it was quite feasible to topdress so- that tbe filling would-not be disturbed by traffic. As the defendant did not do the work so as to prevent stones being disturbed, lie thought it.was negligent and liable. - Mr McNeil drew attention to a similar case at Leeds, England, which appears ip the Justice’s of the Peace and. Local Government Review of February IS.