INJURY TO HORSE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26199, 9 July 1946, Page 6

INJURY TO HORSE

CLAIM FOR DAMAGES

ALLOWED BY APPEAL COURT (P.A.) WELLINGTON, July 8. An appeal by Ernest James Lane, of Carterton, a settler, from a judgment of the Supreme Court at Palmerston North in December last, ordering a new trial as to the question of liability, but not as to the amount of damages awarded in an action brought by Lane against James McKerchar McDonald, of Feilding. a dairy company manager, claiming a total of £I3BO 5s 6d for injury to Lane’s racehorse, Comrade, in a collision with McDonald’s motor car in Feilding on March 29. 1945. has been allowed by a majority decision of the Court of Appeal. A cross appeal by McDonald contending that the Supreme Court decision should be varied by entering a nonsuit or by judgment in favour of the defendant has been dismissed. At the trial of the action in Palmerston North in November last the jury found the defendant negligent and awarded £875 general damages and £l3O special damages. At the same sittings of the Supreme Court, in an action brought by another owner, Michael Andrew Ryan, against McDonald for the loss of Ryan’s racehorse, Magic Chief, which, at the time of the accident, was being ridden by an apprentice jbckey aged 17, who was leading the horse Comrade, the jury gave a unanimous verdict for the defendant McDonald and held that negligence had not been proved against him. The Supreme Court dismissed a motion by Ryan for a new trial, but ordered a new trial on the question of liability only in Lane’s case. There was ample evidence to support the verdict in each case, said the Chief Justice, Sir Michael Myers, giving the court’s decision, and in the circumstances of the case the fact that two juries had given, contrary verdicts could not be held to show that either verdict was unsatisfactory.