DAMAGES SUIT FAILS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1048, 12 August 1930, Page 7

DAMAGES SUIT FAILS

WIDOW’S CLAIM FOR HUSBAND’S DEATH VERDICT FOR CONTRACTOR A unanimous verdict for the defendant was returned by a jury in the Supreme Court late yesterday afternoon, in the action brought by a widow, Annie Irwin, claiming £2,500 damages from W. Lovett for the death of her husband, who was fatally injured through being run over by one of defendant’s motor-lorries. Judgment for the defendant was entered accordingly. The victim of the accident was Thomas Irwin, a City Council employee, who on the morning of February 20 was engaged in spreading sand over the freshly-tarred surface of Hopetoun Street. Ponsonby. He was run over by a lorry bringing a load of sand to the scene of operations, and died in hospital later the same day.

The widow's claim was based on allegations of negligence on the part of the driver, and the defence of ‘inevitable accident,” or, alternatively, of negligence on the part of Irwin, was raised.

Mr. A. H. Johnstone appeared for the plaintiff, and Mr. E. H. Xorthcroft. represented the defendant. NOT CHARITABLE INSTITUTION

In the course of his summing up. Mr. Justice Herdman said that a court of justice was not a charitable institution. His Honour stressed the fact that when a plaintiff came to court seeking damages he was bound to prove that the defendant had been guilty of some neglect, and in the present case, one eyewitness of the accident. who had testified for the plaintiff. considered that the motor-lorry driver was not guilty of any neglect. Everyone sympathised with the widow and children, the Judge added, but if juries in Xew Zealand were to give verdicts based upon sympathy alone, without regard to the evidence, a scandal was perpetrated, and the administration of justice was to some extent tarnished.