DEFENDANT DEAD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 June 1938, Page 11

DEFENDANT DEAD

JUDGMENT IN COLLISION CLAIM. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. A case where a defendant in a civil claim for damages arising out of a motor accident died, as the result of injuries received when he was knocked down by a car, before the delivery of the reserved judgment in the claim, has occurred at Lower Hutt. By coincidence the plaintiff in the action was a taxi-proprietor, and the.. defendant was knocked 'down, and fatally injured, by a motor-car driven by a taxidriver. Both' accidents occurred on a Saturday .night. When the man was knocked down he was crossing the Hutt Road to the Maori meeting-house to attend a tangi.

Mr H. P. Lawry, S.M., delivered his reserved judgment two days after the death of defendant, Percy Warren, late of Nai Nai- Lane, Lower Hutt, but because of this circumstance the court, following decisions of the courts which established precedents in such cases, antedated the judgment to the day on which the arguments were concluded, namely, 18 days before the death of Warren. Plaintiff was William James Pye, taxi proprietor, Lower Hutt, and it was found that Warren, in the collision out of which the claim arose, was clearly at fault in being on his incorrect side and failing to see Pye. Judgment was therefore given against Warren with costs. MrT. Macarthur appeared ■ for Pye and Mr C. O. Barrett for Warren.