PERSONAL ACTION.

Inangahua Times, 28 March 1934, Page 3

PERSONAL ACTION.

NEEDS RErORMING. _ (United Press Assn—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) LONDON, March 26. The legal maxim, that personal action dies with the person, "badly needs reforming, declared an interim reporl of the Law Revision Committee. The frequency of deaths in roac accidents emphasises the injustices, for example sufferers from negligeh driving have no redress if the drive is killed, his death voiding even thin party insurance. It is also' anomalous that a husbant cannot recover medical, funeral o_ house-keeping expenses if his wife is killed in a "bus, if she has bought a ticket, although if he purchased a ticket he can contractually recover all expenses, including the loss of his wife’s services. The committee refers' to the maxims of injustice in the case of a defamation action, abating with the defamed person’s death, although his estate may suffer, yet if the defamation is impersonal like a defamation of a trade mark, the owner of which may die, the action can he continued.

“We do not see why a man’s estate should not he liable to compensate for his wrongs, at least within six months of his death, and secondly where the wronged man dies or his wife is killed ■by a wrong-doer’s act. We believe damages should be apportioned according to the loss of the estate or to the dependents, or sometimes both.”