LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22514, 23 September 1938, Page 12

LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES

PROPOSED CHANGE IN LAW AFFECTING MOTORISTS

The hope that the strongest opposition would be offered to any mo.ve to place responsibility, for damage in motor-car accidents on the motorist, even if he was not to blame, was expressed last night by Mr W. R. Carey, chairman of directors of the South Island Motor Union Mutual Insurance Association, speaking at the annual meeting of the association. “The proposal to place responsibility for accidents, in which motorists are involved, always upon the motorist, regardless of whether any blame is attachable to him or not, was referred to in our eleventh annual report,” said Mr Carey, “and we are pleased to say that;

at present the measure which the Minister for Justice (the Hon. H. G. R. Mason) wished to introduce has.so far been held in abeyance. trust that our members being affiliated with .automobile associations throughout the South Island will resist to. their utmost any future attempt to introduce into the statutes of this Dominion such a far-reaching measure, which is also so far removed from the principles of the' British common law.”