FATHER'S LIABILITY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20690, 9 October 1930, Page 14

FATHER'S LIABILITY.

CAR DRIVEN BY DAUGHTER. COLLISION ON HIGHWAY. ORDER TO PAY DAMAGES. • € [BY TELEGRAPH.—OWN CORRESPONDENT.J PUKEKOHE, Wednesday. A case involving a father's liability for the acts of his daughter in driving a motor-car was the subject of a judgment given in the Fukekoho Magistrate's Court to-day by Mr. F. 11. Levien, S.M. The caso was one in which Koith Fow Fisher, of Hamilton, claimed damages from Gordon Holmes, of Mangatawhiri, as the result of a collision between plaintiff's car and a car driven by defendant's daughter, Honor Holmes, at tho junction of the Railway Station Road and the Great South Road, Pokeno. Judgment was given for plaintiff for £3l 7s and costs.

The magistrate said it was clear that the collision occurred through Miss Holmes failing to observe the right-hand rule. Tho defence had beon raised that the car belonged to the daughter, and that the father was thus not liable. However, tho car was registered in tho father's namo, and the whole of the circumstances led him to decide that it belonged to the father.

Another contention of tho defence had beon that tho father was not liable in that the daughter was using tho car ut tho time for a purpose of which her father knew nothing, namely, to bring home a girl friend. Tho authorities on mado it clear that a father was liable for the acts of his daughter when on such an errand, oven though he did not know that tho friend was expected. Again, tho daughter on this occasion had also gone to tho station to arrange for a railway ticket to travel to a high school. Tho educating of the daughter was essentially tho father's responsibility, and the obtaining of the ticket thus represented tho carrying out of a duty on his behalf.