COURT OF APPEAL

Evening Star, Issue 22143, 25 September 1935, Page 8

COURT OF APPEAL

JUDGE DISMISSES APPLICATION FDR NEW TRIAL [Per United Press Association.] WELLINGTON, September 25. The Court of Appeal to-day is hearing an appeal against the judgment of Mr Justice Johnston in dismissing an application for a new trial in the case of Freda Hill, of Fairdown, a widow, and Shaws' Taxi Service Ltd., Thomas Patrick Shaw, of Westport, taxi driver, and Thomas Shaw, of the same place, electrician. Mrs Hill brought an action against the Shaws for damages as the result of the death of her husband, which occurred after a collision between a motor cycle he was riding and a taxi driven by Thomas Patrick Shaw, and was awarded £1,750 damages by the jury. An application was made to the trial judge, Mr Justice Johnston, for a new. trial on the grounds that the finding of the jury was so defective that the court could not give judgment upon it; that it was against the weight of evidence; and that the damages were excessive, but Mr Justice Johnston expressed the opinion that the jury were entitled to find that the plaintiff’s loss was occasioned through the negligence of the defendants, and that the jury’s assessment of the damages ought not to be set aside.