SUPREME COURT

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 210, 24 May 1918, Page 8

SUPREME COURT

CLAIM FOR DAMAGES

REHEARING OP AN OLD CASE

His Honour Mr. Justice Edwards presided at the .Supreme Court ye.slerd.aT and heard the citil ease iu which Leonard Uoake driver, of Lower Hutt, claimed from tho Hutt Borough. Council £159 f or damage, for alleged negligence Tho ? aSO IT nf. near(l 1,0f0r6 a B l>ecial jury of touv. ihis was Tather a stalo case, as counsel put .it yesterday, tho action iavCourt premusly ieard in tho Supremo . Briefly, ih o facts of tho case are that m May, 1916, plaintiff was driving his motor lorry loaded with furniture down he PaekiiKanki Hill when a portion of the road crumbled away and the lorry was precipitated some 80 or 40 feet down tho hillside.' Cloako was rendered temporarily unconscious, and he had to make good the xlaiiiaga done to the furniture find was put to other expense in recover, mg the lorry, etc. A claim for i' 459 was accordingly made against the council • on the ground that the council had beeA at fault in huling to make safe that por--1 m? roa<i where the a «ident oc curred. lhe council on its part admitted no liability. When the case was heard a year ago before a jury plaintiff was awarded damages, but as there was soma uncertainty as to the effect of the decision considerable legal argument folII * , the , Court ißna ' l y deciding that there should be a retrial, hence tho present case. The ci.se involved lengthy expert evidence on road construction, etc. At the hearing yesterday Mr. T. Young appeared for the plaintiff and Mr T IV Hislop for tho Hutt County Council' lor tbo defence it was contended that tho road did not give way, and, further, it was alleged that plaintiff brought ] about tho accident by negligent driving ! and could have avoided it by tho exercise i of reasonable care. •The hearing of tho case lad not con- I eluded when the Court rose at 5 p.m. i