THIRD PARTY RISK

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 8 September 1938, Page 12

THIRD PARTY RISK

REMOVAL OF AN ANOMALY From Our Own Parliamentary Reporter] | WELLINGTON. This Day. | The removal of an anomaly in ! the regulations in regard to motor accident insurance is achieved by a clause in the Statutes Revision Bill, which was introduced in the House of Representatives yesterday and read a first time. The clause concerns the Motor Vehicles Insurance (Third Party Risk) Act, and its object is to provide that insurance j under this Act will include indemnity against claims for contribution. It was explained by the AttorneyGeneral (the Hon. H. G. R. Mason) that under the third party risks legislation the whole liability for damage done to an innocent person by the joint negligence of two guilty parties fell upon the particular party who was sued, and an insurance company liable for that particular wrongdoer had to pay accordingly. The Law Reform Act. which applied to wrongs generally and not only to cases of motor collisions, enabled the person primarily liable to secure a contribution from . the other wrongdoer, and it had been found that in motor accident cases such a contribu--1 tion was not covered by the third party risks legislation. The new clause ; secures that the whole liability is again covered by the Motor Vehicles Insurance (Third Party Risks) Act. irres- ! pective of the question of contributions i between two wrongdoers.