£11,201 DAMAGES CLAIMED

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28265, 1 May 1957, Page 14

£11,201 DAMAGES CLAIMED

Injury Suffered At Show (New Zealand Press Association) TIMARU, April 30 In one of the first cases of its kind, a man who is alleged to have been severely injured when he was struck by a horse at the Timaru A. and P. Show on October 29, 1955, claimed damages amounting to £11,201 in the Timaru Supreme Court today. The case is being heard before Mr Justice Henry and a jury. The plaintiff, John Telford Munro, a 50-y ear-old farmer of Waitohi, Temuka, sought £lO.OOO general damages and £l2Ol special damages from the Timaru Agricultural and Pastoral Association, the first defendant, and Peggy Dunn, of Fairlie, the owner of the horse and the second defendant. The plaintiff is represented by Mr A. N. Haggitt, of Dunedin, with him Mr B. J. Petrie; the association is represented by Mr E. S. Bowie, with him Mr J. W. Rolleston, and Mrs Dunn by Mr O. Stevens.

Counsel for the plaintiff told the Court that Mr Munro had been watching a machinery exhibit when a horse, frightened by a coil of wire attached to a rope around its neck, careered madly down an alleyway, reared up and knocked Munro over.

Munro had been badly injured, suffering a compound fracture of the lower left humerus. He had been left with a permanent fixation of the left elbow joint and restricted movement and power in the shoulder, arm and hand. He was unable to carry on his work as a farmer, and as a result had sustained “terrific economic and financial loss,” Mr Haggitt said. , Plaintiff’s Claims It was claimed that the defendants owed a duty to the plaintiff and other patrons of the show to take all reasonable steps to protect them.

Plaintiff claimed that his injury resulted from the negligence of the association in that (a) it did not provide sufficient stables or stalls to accommodate all horses exhibited; (b) it did not take any or adequate steps to require exhibitors to keep animals secure and permitted the horse, the property of the second defendant, to be insecurely tethered; (c) it failed to provide any or adequate areas fenced for the tethering of animals not accommodated in stalls or stables; (d) it did not provide any warning or notice that any animals might be running in the grounds free and unattended.

It was claimed that Mrs Dunn did not securely tether the horse, and that she failed to take reasonable proper or any steps to keep the horse under control.

“These are allegations made by a man who, through no fault of his own, has suffered a grievous injury,” Mr Haggitt said. Dr. C. G. D. Halstead said plaintiff’s left arm was disabled to the extent of 75 per cent. Mr A. W. Sutherland, a surgeon, called by the defence said in evidence that if another operation was performed he felt that the disability could be reduced to about 25 per cent. Eye Witness’s Evidence

A police constable who had been visiting the show as a private individual, Walter Valentine Ward, of Pleasant Point, said he

first saw the horse moving from the direction of the railway. It was plunging, blind mad, with cyclone netting tangled in its front legs. The netting was on both sides of its feet, and was swaying about.

He thought he could stop the horse, and stepped in front of itj with a view to waving his arms, but, because of the way it was plunging about, this was impossible. Witness said he called to a woman wheeling a baby in a pram, and she stepped back into the machinery exhibits out of the horse’s path. He called to three men standing with their backs to the horse, at the same time as another called, but the horse knocked them' down. The wire netting caught in an implement and became free, and the horse turned over a truck, part of it striking the bonnet Two of the. men rose from the ground, but the third person, whom he recognised as Munro, appeared to be unconscious, and there were two bones showing through his coat sleeve. Later he saw the horse being caught and led towards the railway by a man who was holding a broken rope attached to a leather halter.

The hearing will be resumed tomorrow morning.