APPEAL COURT

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19314, 15 October 1932, Page 19

APPEAL COURT

AIRLINE CASE CONCLUDED. By Telegrach—Press Association WELLINGTON, October 14, In the Appeal Court, the case, Dominion Air Lines v. Strand, counsel for the respondent submitted that the grant of a pilot's license was not a matter of right, but lay in the dis- > cretion of the Air Board, who could refuse a license on any proper ground. The appellant’s whole argument was based on the ground that a medical examination was the only thing standing between Kight and a B Certificate, enabling him to carry passengers. However, the Director of Air Services considered Kight to be unfit to be a commercial pilot. Kight was suffering from neurasthenia, a form of disability which indicated absence of the nervous stability demanded by the Air Regulations. The fact that the Company had been guilty of a distinct breach of the Regulations in allowing j the 'plane to be flown by a pilot not ! holding a B license, cast the onus of J proof on the appellant Company, of proving that there was no connection between the breach of the regulations and the accident.

For Strand, Mr Cleary submit- | ted that there was a definite con- | nection or nexus between the breach of the regulations and the accident, 1 because if the regulations had been i Observed Kight would not have been j in charge of the ’plane. A contract of j carriage had been made on the as- j sumption that the aviation regulations ! bad been complied with. There was no evidence that Strand knew' appellanthad committed a breach of statu’.ory duty in permitting Kight to pilot the ’plane. If respondent had known that Kight was debarred from piloting the ’plane, he would have accepted the position and travelled completely at j his own risk. After hearing Mr P. B. Cooke, j counsel for appellant in reply, the j Court reserved decision.