JUDGMENT FOR DEFENDANT

Taranaki Daily News, 20 February 1933, Page 3

JUDGMENT FOR DEFENDANT

INJURY CLAIM BY MOTOR-CYCLIST. BOTH VEHICLES WITHOUT LIGHTS. By answering a preliminary question in the affirmative the jury on Saturday found for the defendant on the claim for £4OO general and £l2B 2s 6d special damages brought in the Supreme Court at New Plymouth by Andrew Florence Bourke against Harold Jessop and Clara Adleander Maindonald. Judgment was entered accordingly, with costs according to scale, witnesses’ expenses and disburse xnents. The action, was the result of a collision between Bourke’s motor-cycle and a car driven by C. A. F. Maindonald, both without lights, on the Eltham-Ka-ponga Road about midnight on October 28. Bourke, who received concussion and two broken wrists, did not remember anything after passing a point about a quarter of a mile before reaching the scene of the accident until he awoke in a hospital next day. George Bourke, his brother, riding pillion, is still in hospital under treatment for injuries. When the court resumed in the morning His Honour said that after consultation with counsel he had decided to ask the jury to answer the question: “Was the defendant’s car being driven along the middle of the bitumen part of the road at the time of the collision?” The judge said that the jury might have to answer. further questions, but he wanted the question put to be answered first and counsel would address the jury on that question. Mr. R. H. Quilliam (for the and Mr. A. Chrystal (for plaintiff) then proceeded to address the jury on the point mentioned. Summing up, His Honotxr said that in spite of the expert evidence for Bourke nothing would convince him as a layman, after seeing the cycle, that there had not been a headon collision. He reviewed the evidence and said that it appeared to him that the car had been travelling in the middle of the road. The jury retired at 11.3 a.m. and returned at 11.20.