NASH SERVICE APPEAL

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXI, Issue 214, 24 August 1931, Page 9

NASH SERVICE APPEAL

UPHELD BY CHIEF JUSTICE. MAGISTRATE’S DECISION REVERSED. Tho reserved judgment of his honour, Sir Michael Myers, Chief Justice, in the Supreme Court case in which Malcolm Mclntosh Taylor (Mr L. A. Rogers) representing the Nash ownerdriven car service between Napier and Hastings, appealed from the decision of the Magistrate in a claim in which Stedman Stanley Viles (Mr H. B. Lusk), of the Railway Department), was the plaintiff, has been now received, declaring that the appeal must be allowed, with £7 7/costs. In giving this judgment, his Honour stated that there was no dispute as far as the facts were concerned, and apparently before the Magistrate the whole question turned on the validity of the by-laws. “In my opinion the question does not arise, the real point being the definition of borough omnibus,” states his Honour. Continuing, His Honour stated that the appellant’s vehicle was clearly not one engaged in a motor omnibus service as defined by the Motor Omnibus Traffic Aet, of 1926, because to do so it would have to be solely or principally designed for the carriage of over seven persons. Nor did it come within the meaning of motor coach. It was not disputed that the vehicle plied for hire in both Napier and Hastings and therefore was subject to lawful charges by both local authorities. The question also arose as to the correct definition of borough omnibus, which His Honour held must iefer to vehicles carrying passengers for separate fares between specified termini with the borough, the council having no jurisdiction outside its own borough. The appellant’s vehicle was not a motor omnibus but a motor cab plying for hire between places beyond and within the borough and could only have been licensed as such. "The appellant’s vehicle does not como within the definition of borough omnibus because it does not ply between specified termini within the borough. He was, therefore, wrongly convicted and the conviction must be set aside.”