SEQUEL TO COLLISION.

Waikato Times, Volume 112, Issue 18803, 26 November 1932, Page 8

SEQUEL TO COLLISION.

COMPANY’S APPEAL. UPHELD BY THE COURT. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Friday. ■ln the appeal case, Trickett v. the Queensland Insurance Company, heard on October 10, the court to-day delivered It's reserved judgment in favour of the respondent * Insurance company. In a Joint judgment, their honours, Mr Justioe McGregor and Mr Justice Kennedy, said they were not satisfied that the judgment of the Chief Justioe in the court below was wrong on the facts. In their opinion it was not necessary for the company to establish that the deceased Wlggs knew of the damaged state of his oar, but, even assuming that that knowledge was necessary, then from the evidence It appeared to them that he must have known his oar was being driven without lights, and consequently In a damaged or unsafe condition. iHls Honour, Mr Justice Herdman, dissented from the other members of the court, holding that it was incumbent on the company to show that Wlggs was aware of the unsafe c-ondltion of the car and the evidence did not establish that knowledge. Costs on the highest soale were allowed to the company.

An involved collision Kvhlch took plaee about midnight on November 17, 1930, on the iHutt Road, between Ngahauranga and Kaiwarra, between a car driven by Alfred John Wlggs (who was killed In the collision) and another owned by Dr. Christina Findlater, driven by her sister, Miss Anna Flndlatcr, led to extensive litigation, a phase of which is occupying the attention of the Court of Appeal today. Mrs Marjorie L. lestrange Trickett, a daughter of the deceased (Mr Wiggs) brought a olalm against the Queensland Insurance Company, Ltd., claiming £IOOO as being due to Mr Wlggs’ personal representatives under a comprehensive insurance policy, Issued by the company over Mr Wiggs’ oar. The company disclaimed liability, contending that Mr Wiggs’ car at the time of the aocldent was being driven without lghts and that a certain condition in the policy providing that if a car were being driven in a damaged or unsafe condition no liability should be attached to the oompany applied. His Honour, the Chief Justice (Sir M. Myers), before whom the aotlon was tried, found that at the time of the accident, Mr Wlggs was driving without lights and on the wrong side of the road and that the exception in the policy relied on by the Insurance company applied. Mrs Trickett appealed against this decision.