Court Claim Follows Motor Collision

Chronicle (Levin), 1 February 1949, Page 4

Court Claim Follows Motor Collision

The sequel to an accident on the Waikawa Bridge, Manakau, at, about midnight on August 2 last was the hearing of a civil claim for £106 10s lOd and a counter claim for £29 4s damages in the Magistrates' Court, Levin, before Mr. A. M. Goulding, S.M., on Friday. The hearing lasted more than three hours, two witnesses being called by the plaintiff and one by the defendants. Plaintiff was John Robinson Bibby, contractor, of Shannon, who was represented by Mr,. N. M. Thomson, while defendants were Wiliiam Marks and C'arks' Motors/ of Lower Hutt, for* whom Mr. A. H. Macandrew appeared. Mr. Thomson stated that the case arose out of an accident on Ihe Waikawa Bridge, when two vehicles had collided. He contended that the collision had occurred as a reSult of Marks' vehicle, sa two-ton van, approaching the bridge straddling the white centre line of the road. Plaintiff and James Joseph McFadyen, who had been travelling behind defendant's van, supported this contention, while John Edward Southgate, garage proprietor, of Otaki, gave evidence of the marks left on the road as a result of the accident. Mr. Macandrew held that his client's van had- not been over Ihe -centre line of the road, and both Marks and the driver of the vehicle, Harold Jesse Smith, garage proprietor, of Lower Hutt, gave evidence along these lines. Summing up, Mr. Gouldlug said that the whole quevlon l'or lum tc decide was the reliabiiify of the facts. He accepted unreserved'y the evidence of the witness McFadyen, an independent vitness who had actually seen the acci.l-mt happen. . That and -the evidence of Southgate and Bibby drew attention to the f-act that the van was either right on the centre line of the road or slightly over. He would, therefore, give judgment for plaintiff on both the 'claim and counterciaim, only allowing £93 10s 'lOd of the claim, the remaining part being for the painting of the opposite. side of the car to that damaged. Costs amounting to £9 ls were also qllowp.d.