MOTORS IN COLLISION.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 September 1921, Page 4

MOTORS IN COLLISION.

ELTHAM CASE REHEARD. It is nearly a year ago since the case of Thomaa Henry Fever v. Benjamin Booker was first heard at the Eltham Magistrate’s Court. It was a claim for £157, for damages sustained by plaintiff’s car on Burke’s hill early in 1920. At that hearing the Magistrate Mr. T. A. B. Baily, gave judgment for defendant. Plaintiff appealed against this decision, and at the New Plymouth sessions of the Supreme Court Mr Justice Hosking directed that the magistrate rehear the case. This was done a few weeks ago and Mr. Baily has now given a lengthy written judgment in the course of which he reviews much of the evidence, and points out that there are many discrepancies between the evidence given at the first and second hearings, while some of the evidence was amplified. “It is for the plaintiff to estahlish affirmatively that there was negligence on the part of the defendant. In the face of the evidence, I cannot find that be has discharged the onus cast on him. The defendant was not driving fast, he had his lights burning, they were dimmed on approaching the plaintiff, and he drew over to his left giving the plaintiff ample roadway, of which the plaintiff, for some unaccountable reason, did not avail himself.”

Judgment was given defendant, with costs amounting to £42. Security for appeal was fixed at £54. —Argus.