MAGISTRATE’S COURT

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 24 November 1927, Page 4

MAGISTRATE’S COURT

HAVELOCK TOWN BOARD CASE INTERESTING POINTS RAISED. The adjourned hearing of the case in which Bernard Chambers, farmer, of Te Mata, claimed from the Havelock North Town Board the sum of £56, the cost of replacing a refrigerating machine allegedly made defective by a fault in the rejoining of broken electrical transmission wires, was resumed at the Magistrate's Court, Hastings, this morning when Mr. A. M. Mowlem. S.M., presided. Evidence was given at length by James H. Scott electrical engineer to the Hastings Borough Council and supervising engineer to the Town Board. He stated that the chances of making the reconnection exactly as it existed before were one in six, and of making a workable reconnection, three to three. There was no instrument, in existence that would enable one to indicate the nhase rotation of electric current, and engineers had been trying for twenty years to invent such an inst-umenr. Plaintiff's evidence alleged that the refrigerating engine was not built to run in reverse, but witness contended that as it was merely a plunger-pump machine it could run in either direction. In his opinion the stipulation about the machine not going into reverse was purely a loop-hole in the maker s guarantee. A very simple device would have made the engine proof against running in reverse, ft should have been apparent to Mr. Chambers, or to the man who had charge of the engine, to see that the engine was not running properly. Witness then gave some highly technical evidence in explanation of his theory that chemical processes going on in the refrigerating gas mav have caused damage to the engine, for. in his opinion, a mere reversal of its direction of runnin? would not cause the damage. One of the principles involved in the case was the liability or nonliability of such local bodies, as the Town Board in happenings resulting from faults in repairing broken wires. Mr. I'l J. W. Hallett armoured for the plaintiff, while Mr E. H Williams represented the Town Board. Decision was reserved.