"PROFIT OUT OF DEATH"

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19549, 3 February 1938, Page 18

"PROFIT OUT OF DEATH"

MOTOR ACCIDENT CLAIMS CHIEF JUSTICE'S COMMENT "SOMETHING REVOLTING" (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, last night. The legal position regarding claims for compensation for the loss of expectation of life by the dependants of a jperson killed as a result of negligence, was the -subject of comment by the Chief Justice, Sir -Michael Myers, in summing up in a case 'in the Supreme Court. His Honour said there appeared to him to be something revolting in the idea of living persons making a profit out of the death of another, but it was the law. As a result of amendments to the law on the question, certain difficulties had arisen, and His Honour hoped the Legislature would soon put an end to them.

As an illustration of the effect of the present legislation, Sir Michael Myers said a man and his wife might have four children. They might be out for a drive in a car with three of the children, when an accident occurred and all five were killed. The fourth child would have cause of action in the first place against the person responsible for the death of the father, if there was negligence. His Honour said he was assuming that all five lived for a day or two after the accident, because if they did not, according to the law laid down in England, there 'was no cause of action. Apparently the cause of action only arose if' there was an appreciable space of time between the accident and death. There was then a loss of the father's expectation of life. It was true that any sum recovered went first to the paymeent of debts and then to disbursements under the will, if there was a will. There was a similar loss of expectation of life of the mother and of the other children. That seemed to him to be making a profit out of deaths.