COURT OF APPEAL

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 256, 12 October 1932, Page 7

COURT OF APPEAL

SEQUEL TO WAIROA ’PLANE SMASH.

ARGUMENT REPRESENTED TO ANOTHER BENCH OF JUDGES. By Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington. Oct. 12. The Court of Appeal is hearing the appeal ef Dominion Airlines Ltd. v. Strand.

This case on appeal was argued before the Court of Appeal in July last. It presents considerable legal difficulties and the Court of Appeal asked for argument to be represented to another bench of judges consisting of members of both divisions of the Court. That is being done to-day, and on the bench are the Chief Justice, Sir Michael Myers, Mr Justice McGregor, Mr Justice Ostler, Mr Justice Smith and Mr Justice Kennedy. The facts leading to the appeal are that on February 8. 1931, shortly after the Hawke’s Bay earthquake, a Desoutter monoplane belonging to Domilon Airlines Ltd. (now in liquidation) when flying between Gisborne and Hastings crashed in a field near Wairoa, the pilot, Ivan Louis Kight, and two passengers being killed. An action was subsequently commenced in the Supreme Court by William Thomas Strand, father of WiMiaro Charles Strand, one of the passengers who was killed, claiming under the Death by Accident Compensation Act the sum of £5,000 for the death of his son. He alleged that the company had been guilty of a breach of its statutory duty in falling to provide for the aeroplane pilot holding a B class pilot’s flying certificate issued under the Aviation Regulations, 1921. He also alleged that the pilot had been negligent in flying at too low an altitude and at a too greatly reduced speed, and in endeavouring to perform a turn into the wind while flying at too low an altitude and at a too greatly reduced speed. The company denied liability, contending that it was a term of the contract of carriage that it would not be placed under any liability m the event of accident. The action was originally heard at Wellington in September, 1931, before Mr Justice Reid, who held that there was a causal connection between the breach of statutory duty, which he found the company to have committed in failing to provide a pilot holding a B license, and the accident. He held that the terms of the contract of carnage did not exonerate the company and awarded Strand £3,000 damages. Legal argument is proceeding.