REPAIRS TO A MOTOR CAR.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2089, 12 February 1920, Page 2

REPAIRS TO A MOTOR CAR.

DAMAGES FOR NEGLIGENT WORKMANSHIP.

Sumo interesting remarks were made by Mr <l. S. Barton, 8.M., at Gisborne, in concluding judgment; in a motor car repair case,- in which the dol'cndan'l, on a counter-claim, had olhaincd substantial damages as the result, of being held up on a, hofiday lour through the negligent workmanship at a. motor garage. He said: “At 'first sight these (£7B 18s (id, with £2O .costs) may seem heavy damages'to arise from an act oil negligence in replacing a broken axle. It may he as well to point out, for the benelit of -garage proprietors, that the. case seems to me to establish a principle that is fairly self-evident. Two considerations 1 joint to an over-present liability to heavy damages in such cases. The lirsl is that from the nature of the car itself, and the uses to which it is ordinarily put/thc results of negligence may first become apparent when the car and its qwiicr arc Jar from headquarters, in the way of serious injury to property, human life and limb. These facts .must, 1 think, lie taken to ho in contemplation of both parties when o repair job is offered and accepted. *‘Tho second consideration is that garage proprietors ordinarily hold themselves out as providing highly skilled labour, and their charges are based on a high scale of wages, 'flic liabilities must be measured accordingly.”