EARTHQUAKE SEQUEL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2433, 23 February 1909, Page 3

EARTHQUAKE SEQUEL.

SEITLEAIENT OF £700,000 LAWSUIT. A settlement was arrived at in December in the insurance litigation wlr'cli followed the Jamaica earthquake of 1907. After the earthquake and the fires Kingston • was a ruin. Alost of the premises in the business part of the town were shattered, and the insurance' companies denied liability for rebuilding. on- the ground that the fires were the consequence of the earthquake, and were, therefore, outside tlie risk they had undertaken to cover. Counsel were briefed in London to fight a test action on behalf of the policy holders. Air E. G. Hemmerde (now K.C.) and Air Maurice B. Blake went to Jamaica. Two actions were fought there. To take part in them the English barristers had to he formally admitted to the Colonial Bar. The actions culminated in an appeal to the Privy Council, when it was finally decided that the companies had not made out their case that the earthquake was to blame. The companies have, after the decisions of the courts in London and Jamaica, accepted liability for the damage done by the fires which accompanied the earthquake. The total amount to be paid by the companies is about £600.000, together with £75,000 costs. Taking into account the costs incurred by the companies them,selves, the cost of the settlement and the litigation lias been about £BOO,OOO. -The original claims amounted to just over £700,000.'