DAMAGES QUESTIONED

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 156, 17 June 1936, Page 7

DAMAGES QUESTIONED

Appeal in Case Heard in Napier By Telegraph —Press Assoeiation. WELLINGTON, June if. The Court of Appeal has commenced the hearing of an appeal from the decision of Mr. Justice Ostler, who ordered a new trial of an action heard before him on April 29 arising out of au accident at Whakarongu, near Palmerston North, on December 15, 1935, The appellant, Edith Matilda Hodgson, who was riding a bicycle, wis ruu info aud severely injured by a motor car belonging to the Hawke’s Bay Meat Co., Ltd., one of the respondents in the action, and driven by a man named Stubbs. Liability was admitted and the only question was the amount of damages to which the appellant was entitled. The jury awarded the full amount of general damages claimed, £2506. llespoudenta sought a new trial ou the ground that the general damage* awarded wore in the circumstances excessive. Their application was successful, Mr. Justice Ostler stating thut tho damages awarded were so large that no jury could reusouubly huvo given them, Mr. F. W. Oaglcy, for tho appellant, submitted: (1) The jury were a constitutional tribunal to assess damages. (2) Tho jury must bo taken to have found in appellant’s favour everything which it was open to them reasonably to find. (3) Thu verdict of the jury must stand unless it could be shown affirmatively thut they had lulled in the function of assessing damages. Such failure could by brought about only iu two ways—by taking into cousidcratiou some irrelevant matter or by giving such a verdict as twelve sensible men could not give*(4) la claims for personal damages there was no defined measure of damages aud the busi* was such amount us a jury using reasonable commouseusc assess us full uud fair compensation lor injury, bearing iu uriud thut they compensate once und for ull. (5) The judgment of Mr. Justice Ostler overlooked thut the jury’s estrmate was a proper basis us to the amount of damages unless it could be shown to have been improperly made. Claims for personal injury were not capable of being fixed by some neat measure. The court would have to consider what should the jury have given, how they arrived at the amount found by them, and if this was excessive, was the excess such thut uo twelve men would give if. (Proceeding).