ELECTRICAL WIRING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20282, 15 December 1927, Page 12

ELECTRICAL WIRING.

RECONNECTING BROKEN LINES. AN IMPORTANT JUDGMENT. (Peb United Pbess Association.) NAPIER, December 14. A decision of exceptional interest to all local bodies concerned with electrical installations was delivered by Mr A. M. Mowlem, S.M., at the Hastings Magistrate's Court to-day. The effect of the judgment is that local body electrical engineers, provided they take reasonable care, are not responsible for the consequences that mav follow upon re-connect-ing in their wrong sequence power transmission wires. The Havelock North Town Board was the defendant in a suit in which Bernard Chambers sought to recover £56, the cost of replacing a refrigerating machine, which was made to run in the reverse by the wrong connection of broken transmission wires. The evidence of the Hastings borough electrical engineer was most emphatic _ in insisting that it was almost entirely a matter of luck to get a right sequence, and that in the circumstances of the present case the odds were greatly against making a proper connection. Ho also said it was impossible to discover in what direction the electrical current would flow when it was set in motionThe Magistrate found that there was no negligence on the part of the board, and pointed out that the plaintiff himself had failed to take care and to avoid the known risks. He knew that the guarantee of the makers of the refrigerating machin. cry did not cover running in reverse, yet ho failed to provide against an emergency which could have been provided against by a simple contrivance. Security for appeal was fixed at -Ab 15s.