WOMAN’S ALARM

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 163, 26 June 1935, Page 14

WOMAN’S ALARM

Accident Outside House ACTION FOR DAMAGES By Telegraph—Press Association. WELLINGTON, June 25. Real alarm and serious mental and physical hurt were alleged in a case in the Magistrate’s Court when Mary Alexander, married, sought £3OO damages from John O’Donovan, solicitor, following an accident o’Donovan had with a car outside her bedroom window in Palliser road on December 11. She alleged that he drove so recklessly and negligently that the ear crashed through the garage adjoining her house and stopped within a few feet of the window of her room. His action aggravated her heart disease, incapacitated her, caused her to incur expense for medical aid and hospital attention, and medicine and assistants in her home. The Magistrate, Mr Mosley, remarked that he had read the statement and it was a new one to him. Mr Treadwell, for plaintiff, said, "When evidence is revealed a great deal of authority will be brought to show the jurisdiction of the Court to award damages.’’ He spid there must have been a series of loud and alarming crashes, because they awoke neighbours as far ae a quarter of a mile away. For the defence, it was stated that O’Donovan was driving a new ear with unfamiliar controls, and had put his foot on the accelerator instead of the brake. The ear had not come into eontact with Mrs Alexander’s house at all. Counsel pointed out the effect of making a precedent for awarding damages to people who received shock as the result of an accident. There was no duty, he said, which extended so far that the driver of a vehicle on a highway had to make provision for the occupants of every house he passed. The magistrate reserved his decision.