REMARKABLE LAW SUIT

Taranaki Daily News, 5 August 1931, Page 5

REMARKABLE LAW SUIT

FRENCH DOCTOR’S CLAIM. THE FIRING OF A GUN. A claim which has no precedent in French legal history has been made oy a doctor at Nogent le Rotrou. He was lately suing the local electricity company for £4 damages on the ground that they caused him to lose a patient. Tlie patient in question was undergoing electrical treatment in the doctor’s surgery when suddenly the current went off. The patient —obviously distressed by the interruption of the treatment —went away and never returned to the surgery. ■ When the doctor made his claim, the local company denied all responsibility on the ground that it received its current from a distributing company, which in turn received it from a third, company which generated the power. This latter company passed on responsibility to the Alayor of the Commune, alleging that he had caused an interruption of the current by authorising the firing of a gun on the occasion of a local fete. The .Mayor said that although he had authorised the firing of the gun, he must pass responsibility on to the Garde Uhampetre, who had charge of the gun. The Garde Uhampetre in turn blamed the gunner, who had placed his piece in a position so badly chosen that the shock of the explosion wrecked a cable standard and broke the wire. The gunner was electrocuted on the spot. It was left for the Court to decide whether the gunner, the Garde Champetre, the Mayor, or one of’ the three companies must be held to account for the doctor’s loss of a patient.