THIRD PARTY DAMAGE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23000, 30 March 1938, Page 15

THIRD PARTY DAMAGE

PROMPT NOTICE NECESSARY DRIVER'S COSTLY OMISSION [by TEIiEGMAril —I'JtKSS ASSOCIATION] DUXEDIX, Tuesday The duty of motorists under the Motor Vehicles Insurance (Third Party Risks) Act, 1928, to see that prompt notice of an accident in given to the insurance company concerned was forcibly brought homo to a defendant in the Dunedin Magistrate's Court to-day. Through failing to notify his insurance company he was called upon to pay damages of £47 which otherwise would have been met by the company. The case, the first of its kind to be heard in Dunedin, was that in which the South Island Motor Union Mutual Insurance Association proceeded against James Anderson, miner, of Ohai, Southland, for £47, being the amount paid in respect of third party damage which had not been notified, Mr, J. R. Bartholomew, S.M., was on the Bench. Mr. E. J. Anderson, for plaintiff, said defendant was involved in a motor accident in which a young woman was injured. The insurance company was not notified of the accident until three months later, when defendant sent it a bill he had received from the injured person's solicitors. The magistrate gave judgment, by default, to the plaintiff company for the full amount, with costs, £4 los.