WHOSE RESPONSIBILITY?

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 12 February 1927, Page 11

WHOSE RESPONSIBILITY?

HOUSEHOLDER’S PROPERTY DAMAGED NO COMPENSATION “I would like to bring to public notice an unpleasant experience which has befallen me and to w r hich many householders may at any time be likewise subjected/’ writes a correspondent to The Times. “My house stands at the corner of cross-roads. A motorcar travelling along the main road met a motor-cyclist attempting to cross the main road. The motor-car ran into the motor-cyclist, and then, mounting the pavomqn, crashed through two rows of my iron railings, uprooting and breaking the cement blocks in which the railings were embedded. I naturally requested the owner of the motor-car to pay for the damage done. His insurance company refused to do so, placing the blame on the cyclist. Not having seen the accident, and there being no witness, I decided to sue the driver of the car, having first definitely verified the fact that the driver of the car had 25 yards in which to pull up before hitting my railings from the point where he should have seen the motor-cyclist. I was of the opinion that, whether or not the cyclist was to blame in coming out on to the main

road, the car driver was equally to blame for being unable to stop his car. p* X lost my case in the court, the learned judge finding no negligence on the part of the car driver. I have therefore now to pay both for the damage done and the entire cost of the action. It does not seem right that it should be left to the householder whose property is damaged, without ,any witness to assist him, to be the judge as to who is responsible for the damage done to his property. Common sense would suggest that the person who actually does -the damage is responsible to the owner of the property, even if he has to recover from any other person or persons involved, should he consider that the responsibility lies elsewhere than with himself. It would appear that some change in the law is urgently required to allow of such a procedure. With the daily increase of cars on the road, and the terribly inexperienced drivers, accidents will' probably become more frequent, and as the law now,stands the owner of property is likely very frequently to find that ho himself has to pay for the damage done by others to his property.”