Judges confirm ruling on hunting incident damages

The Court of Appeal, composed of Chief Justice Vincent Degaetano, Mr Justice Joseph D. Camilleri and Mr Justice Joseph A. Filletti, yesterday confirmed a judgment by the First Hall of the Civil Court whereby a man injured in a hunting accident was awarded damages amounting to over Lm27,000.

This judgment was delivered in the case filed by Joseph Grixti against Anthony Vella.

Mr Grixti asked the First Hall of the Civil Court to order Mr Vella to make good the damages he sustained after a hunting accident in 1992.

The court heard that the parties had gone hunting in the limits of Safi when, at one stage, Mr Grixti was hit and blinded in one eye by lead shot. According to him, Mr Vella was responsible for this accident.

The first court had ruled in favour of Mr Grixti and had decided that Mr Vella was responsible for the accident and for the damages sustained by Mr Grixti.

Mr Vella was ordered to pay Mr Grixti damages amounting to Lm28,484.

Mr Vella resorted to the Court of Appeal asking for the judgment to be revoked and that he would not be held responsible for the accident.

The court noted that the two men were hunting at a rather short distance from one another, for there were under 200 feet between them.

At about 6.45 a.m. Mr Grixti was hit in the eye and he had immediately blamed Mr Vella for the incident.

The evidence was, in part, totally conflicting on important aspects of the case. However, the Court of Appeal declared that it saw no reason to overturn the conclusions reached by the first court as to the responsibility for the accident.

The Court of Appeal, however, reduced the damages awarded to plaintiff by Lm600 in that Mr Vella was ordered to pay plaintiff Lm27,884.