SEQUEL TO ACCIDENT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 10, 9 December 1932, Page 8

SEQUEL TO ACCIDENT

APPEAL SUCCEEDS. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Nov. 9. The Court of Appeal delivered its reserved judgment to-day in the appeal of Dominion Airlines, Ltd., v. W. T. Strand, giving judgment in favour of Dominion Airlines, Ltd. Sir Michael Myjers, Chief Justice, giving an oral resume of Iris written judgment, said that in his opinion the regulations under the Aviation Act had been passed for the benefit of a certain class of people, of which deceased, W. C. Strand, was a member, and a breach of those regulations gave rise to the cause of action, providing sufficient nexus could be between the breach of the regulation and the injury occasioned. He differed from the judgment of tire Court below, however, on the question of negligence, for he was not at all satisfied with the evidence of negligence produced by Mr Strand, and was forced to hold that neglige ice had not been proved, although it was not necessary to decide the point. He did not think, even if negligence had been established, that there was sufficient nexus between the breach of the regulations and the injury. Mr Justice McGregor, m agreeing that the appeal be allowed, said that Air Strand had failed to establish that the Aviation Act, and the regulations thereunder, created a statutory right of .action in his favour. He, too, was unable to concur in the finding of negligence made by the trial ji dge. Mr Justice Ostler held that there was sufficient evidence on which the Court below was entitled to find that the accident was caused by the negligence of the pilot and that the necessary nexus between a breach of the regulations and the injury existed. In his. opinion, the appeal should be dismissed. Mr Justice Smith and Mr Justice Kennedy agreed that the appeal be allowed. Judgment was accordingly entered in favour of the appellant company with costs on tho highest scale.

Tho facts loading to tho appeal arc that on February 8, 1931, shortly after tlic Hawke’s Bay earthquake, a De Soutter monoplane belonging to Dominion Airlines, Ltd. (now in liquidation) was flying between Gisborne and Hastings, when it crashed in a field near Wairoa, the pilot, Mr Ivan Louis Kight, and two passengers being killed. An action was subsequently conunonccd in the Supreme Court by Mr William Thomas Strand, father of Mr William Charles Strand, one of the passengers who wore killed, claiming, under tho Death by Accident Compensation Act, the sum of £SOOO for the death of his son. He alleged tho company bad been guilty of a breach of its statutory duty in failing to provide for tho aeroplane a pilot bolding a “B” pilot’s flying certificate issued under the Aviation Regulations, 1921. Plaintiff also alleged that the pilot bad been negligent in flybig at too low an altitudo and at too greatly reduced speed, and in endeavouring to perform a turn 'into tho wind while flying at too low an altitude and at too greatly reduced speed. Tho company denied liability, contending that it was a term of the contract of carriage that it should not be placed under any liability in tho event of an accident. The action was originally beard in Wellington on September, 1931, before Mr Justice Reid, who held that thcro was a casual connection between tho breach of statutory duty which he found the company to havo committed in failing to provide a pilot bolding a “B” license, and tho accident, lie hold that tho terms of the contract of carriage did not exonerate the company and awarded Mr Strand £3OOO damages.