REPAIRS TO A MOTOR-CAR

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 122, 16 February 1921, Page 7

REPAIRS TO A MOTOR-CAR

ALLEGED FAULTY WORK. ■Reserved judgment was delivered yesterday by Mr. W. G. Riddell. 8.M.. in the action brought bv J. E. Cave, taxi pronrietor. bower Hutt (Mr. T. Neave). who claimed £2OO for the loss of the use of a motor-car and damages for depreciation from JT. H. Jury, garage proprietor. Lower Tfutt (Mr. C. M. Crombie). It was alleged that defendant bad so lindti!fully effected repairs to the car's engine in January, 1920, that a cylinder and the crank case were smashed as sobn as the car was owed after being repaired. The Magistrate said that counsel, tor plaintiff had submitted that as the car had been placed In defendant’s hands for certain repairs, and aa shortly after these had been effected it broke down, th" maxim "res ipsa loquitur” applied, and the onus was on the defendant to show that the work had been properly done hy his servant. The suggested cause of the Injury put forward by the defendant, the Magistrate held, was not supported by the evidence, while the theory set up by the plaintiff was. in his opinion, more conclusive that the cause of the injury was due to faulty workmanship -when the 'piston and gudgeon pins were being attended to.

judgment was given for plaintiff for £l5O and costs totalling £l6 6e.