LOSS OF A HORSE.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 March 1921, Page 6

LOSS OF A HORSE.

FARMERS RECOVER DAMAGES. LOCAL BODY’S LIABILITY. The question of a’local body’s liability in respect of an accident caused by a hole in the road was involved in a case in which Mi. T. A. B. Bailey, S.M., delivered judgment at the New Plymouth Court yesterday. The action had been brought by Sydney Whiteman and Thomas Guthrie, farmers, of Kaimata, against the Inglewood County Council, claiming £25 damages for loss of a horse, which broke a leg by stumbling' in a hole in the road. The case was heard at the Inglewood Court on Friday, February 18, and the principal facts were that on November 17 a small hole appeared in the Junction Road at the Ngatoro bridge through the earth slipping. The hole was filled in on the 18th, but on the 20th another hole appeared in the road and the plaintiff's horse put his leg into it with disastrous results. The plaintiff’s claim rested on the point that the hole of the 20th was in the same spot as that of the 18th, whereas the county claimed that it was not the same hole but a new one immediately adjoining and opening into the first. In giving judgment, His Worship remarked that the two holes had occurred so close together that it was impossible to distinguish one from the other. If the first hole had been properly repaired* there would have been no second one. Defendant having undertaken to repair it, should have carried out the work in such a way as to avoid a further occurrence in exactly the same place. Judgment would be for plaintiffs for £2O with costs. At the hearing Mr. F. E. Wilson apj&ared for plaintiffs and Mr. H. R. Billing represented the defendant council. Briefly the legal position in respect to such cases as the above is that if a road is out of repair the local body controlling it is not liable for damages in respect of any accident caused thereby. But if the local body repair the road and an accident occurs as a result of negligenee in the course of such repairing damages can be claimed.