COURT OF REQUESTS. Important To Carters And Others. Storer and another v. Hume.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 211, 7 August 1847, Page 2

COURT OF REQUESTS. Important To Carters And Others. Storer and another v. Hume.

This was an action to recover the value of two logs of timber which the defendant had undertaken to carry from the Hutt to Wellington. It was proved that in the attempt to bring them down the defendant's dray was broken, and that on a second attempt the road gave way, and the dray sunk so deeply that the eight bullocks attached to it were unable to draw it out even after the timber had been thrown off, and it was afterwards necessary to dig it out. It was proved on the part of the plaintiffs that they had lost the sale of the timber, and on the part of the defendant that from the state of that portion of the road, it was impossible then or since to bring the, logs down on any wheeled carriage, and the plaintiffs would not allow them to be dragged for fear of injury. The Commissioner said a carrier was bound in law to deliver whatever he had undertaken to carry, the act of God, and the Queen's enemies only excepted, he thought the defendant was bound to pay the full value as he should have known the state of the roads at the time he made the bargain. — Verdict for the plaintiffs, £5:6; the logs to become the property of defendant.