SUPREME COURT JUDGMENT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9076, 28 April 1908, Page 5

SUPREME COURT JUDGMENT.

A MASTERTON APPEAL CASE. _____ Mr Justice Chapman gave reserved judgment at Wellington yesterday in the case of Hallenstein Bros., Ltd., appellants, v. Thonuu Dwyer, respondents appeal on fact and law from a judgment of the Stipendiary Magistrate at Masterton. On November ! 21st, 1907, a mare belonigng to re- j spondent, bolting through the borough of Masterton, entered the clothier's shop of appellants, breaking several plate-glass windows, and doing other damage, claimed to amount to £52 10s. In an action brought to obtain redress for this judgment was given for defendant, and the plaintiff now appealed. The place from which the mare came was respondent's yard. On the day in question respondent and others were in the yard, and re»pondent's mare was being harnessed by respondent himself. A man named O'Neill was waiting in the yard for respondent to harness the mare in order that he might take it to the Carterton show. O'Neill was interested in this, as if the mare won, the competition for which jt was entered he was to have received half the proceeds. He was not otherwise in respondent's employ. A man named Jones drove a waggon into the yard, and the mare bolted. His Honour held that the mare bolted on account of O'Neill throwing a bucket of water over the waggon horses, which resulted in the driver wheeling his horses, which came close to the gig and waggon, and struck the mare on the rump. The question that arose, first, whether the respondent was answerable for O'Neill's acr, _nd secondly, whether there was proof of negligence in the mock* in which the mare was dealt with. His Honour held in favour of respondent on both these questions, and affirmed the Magstrate's judgment, with £8 8s costs.