THE MISSING DUCO.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2758, 12 March 1910, Page 5

THE MISSING DUCO.

RELATIVES SUE FOR COMPENSATION.

[Per Press Association.] WELLINGTON, March 11. Several actions have been commenced by the. executors of W. Wad dilove, A. L. Wenand and others Against the Wellington Harbor Ferries Company, claiming damages for loss of life through the alleged foundering of the defendant Company’s steamer the Duco. These claims all allege that the Company despatched the Duco to sea in, an unseaworthy condition, whereby the loss of life occurred. To-day the Company applied to the Court in its admiralty jurisdiction under the Shipping and Seamen’s Act to limit the Company’s liability to £ls per ton in terms of the Act, and to stay all .proceedings in the Supreme Court until the Admiralty Court had decided', whether the Duco was lost through the owners’ actual fault, upon which the question of the right to limit liability to £ls per ton depends. The executors of Waddilove and Wenand objected to the jurisdiction of the Admiralty Court- to grant such limitation, because the Ferry Company had in its petition denied all liability wOiatever, and it was contended that before the petition could be delivered this denial of liability should be withdrawn. The motion- was adjourned by the Chief Justice till to-morrow to enable counsel for the Ferry Company (Mr Samuel) to consult as to whether the Company would consent to an amendment of the pleadings admitting certain liability.