APPEAL COURT

Evening Star, Issue 23382, 27 September 1939, Page 13

APPEAL COURT

SERVICE CAR FATALITY SEQUEL WELLINGTON, September 26. After a hearing lasting five days the Court of Appeal this afternoon reserved its judgment in the case Nortnern Publishing Company Ltd. versus Henry William 'White. The case arose from an on February 16, 1938, when Henry William White, "of Mangonui, a service car driver, was injured at Waiinate North. The bus he was driving collided with a clay bank, and he died a few days later, leaving a widow and two young children. In August, 1938, the widow instituted an action in _ the Supreme Court at Whangarei against the owner of the bus, the Northern Publishing Company Ltd., alleging, amongst other matters, that to the knowledge of the company the brakes of the bus were in a defective and unsafe condition and did not comply with transport licensing passenger regulations, 1936. The case came on for trial at Whangarei from March 3 to 10 last, and the jury found that the bus was in an unsafe condition, that the company knew of that condition, and that' the accident was caused by that condition. It awarded Mrs White and her children £2,717. ' Counsel for the Publishing Company then moved for an order nonsuiting the plaintiff or the entering of judgment for the company on many grounds, chief amongst which were that White himself was aware of the condition of the bus and must bo taken to have consented to the risk he ran in driving it; that the carrying on of a bus service was beyond the powers given to the company by its memorandum of association, and that being so, the company was not liable for the injuries caused by the operation of the bus service. These contentious were all rejected by the trial judge (Mr Justice Callan), and judgment was entered in accordance with the jury’s verdict.