BUS COMPANY SUED FOR £l,000 DAMAGES

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 119, 10 August 1927, Page 9

BUS COMPANY SUED FOR £l,ooo DAMAGES

HORSEMAN’S CLAIM While riding a horse from Paerata to Puni on December 22, 1926, -Joseph James Hoc, a farmer, alleged in the Supreme Court to-day that he was crushed against a bank by a motorbus. The horse was so injured that it had to be destroyed and the rider sustained a fracture of the spine. Hoe to-day sought to recover from Wilfred James Wheeler, Wilfred Lorberg Wheeler, and Geoffrey Ernest Wheeler, trading as W. J. Wheeler and Sons, bus proprietors (Mr. E. H. Northcroft) £1,004 6s damages. The case is being heard by Mr. Justice Herdman and a jury. Mr. G. P. Finlay stated that the planitiff was riding his horse along his correct side of the road. Upon approaching a bend in the road he saw the lights of a motor-bus approaching. He pulled in further to the bank, but the motor-bus swerved into him and crushed him against the bank. Tlie driver told plaintiff afterwards that he did not see anyone at the bend. The horse had received a broken leg and had to be destroyed. Subsequent X-ray examinations showed that the plaintiff had sustained a fracture of the spine. (Pxoceeuuis.)