TAXI TEST CASE.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 301, 19 December 1931, Page 9

TAXI TEST CASE.

Hiring Cab on Street near Station. An action brought privately practically to test the by-law providing that drivers in the street within two hundred yards of the railway station shall not accept fares when there are disengaged taxis on the stand, was heard at the Magistrate’s Court yesterday. Informant was J. S. Mander, secretary of the Christchurch Taxi-drivers’ Association, and the defendant was C. E. Atkinson, a Gold Band taxi-driver. Mr 11. A. Young, S.M., heard the case and convicted Atkinson and ordered him to pay costs. It was stated in evidence that the defendant was inside the Gold Band Garage opposite the station. A witness came off the station, lifted a finger and defendant drove over. The prosecution contended that this constituted hiring on the street and that the lifting of the finger was an invitation to the driver to come over and arrange a hiring and that a contract was made on the street. The case for the defence was that the hiring was done in the garage, where defendant was when the hirer beckoned to him.

The Magistrate held that the hiring was done on the street, and convicted defendant.