RAYMOND LINCOLN Vs. ALICE POUPINEL DE VALENCE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Their Lordships on this occasion find themselves in the unusual position of being the first Court of appeal from the trial tribunal. Any disadvantage however which might otherwise have arisen from the absence of any intermediate review is compensated by the fact that the Court of first instance was composed of three Judges of the Supreme Court of Mauritius, at whose hands the case has manifestly received prolonged and careful consideration.

(2.) The action is one of damages for personal injuries sustained by the plaintiff in a motor accident, such as is commonly tried in this country by a Judge and jury, and resulted in a unanimous judgment for the defendant. Inasmuch as the appeal is not from the verdict of a jury, their Lordships have conceived it to be their duty to review the whole case on its merits and not merely to consider whether there was evidence before the Court below on which the judgment pronounced could proceed. At the same time, in a case such as this, in which the issues are entirely confined to questions of fact and credibility, their Lordships recognise that the Judges in Mauritius, who not only saw and heard the witnesses, but also twice viewed the locus of the accident, possessed advantages in weighing the evidence which are denied to their Lordships.

(3.) The accident occurred about 5.30 in the afternoon of 25 December l928, in broad daylight, in the Rue Royale, an important thoroughfare in Port Louis, at a spot close to the entrance to the house and grounds of a Mr. d'Unienville. The road is here on a rising gradient from the direction of L' Eau Coulee towards the Curepipe Road Station, and is about 274 feet broad, with a ditch on each side, and apparently no regular footpath on either side. The entrance to Mr. d'Unienville's house and grounds is by a drive leading off at right angles from the road on the left side as it ascends, and the ditch is at this point covered over in order to give access for foot passengers and vehicles to his premises. The Church of Ste. Helene is on the same side of the road as Mr. d'Unienville's property, about 50 or 60 yards away in the down hill direction. On the occasion of the accident the plaintiff was proceeding up the road on a motor-bicycle towards Curepipe Road Station on his own, the left-hand side of the road. The defendant's motor-car was being driven by the defendant's chauffeur, who was its sole occupant, in the opposite direction and was on its way to Mr. d'Unienville's house.