Latest battle over bridge death ends

The latest legal wrangling in a long-running case has ended for Keith and Margaret Berryman, with the High Court striking out their claim for damages over the death of a man on their farm bridge.

The army-built bridge collapsed on their King Country farm in 1994, killing beekeeper Ken Richards as he travelled across in his honey-laden truck.

The Berrymans have been fighting for damages ever since and have made several unsuccessful attempts to negotiate for compensation from the Government.

In a judgment made public yesterday, Justice Alan MacKenzie struck out their latest claim, the Dominion Post reported.

On the Berrymans' behalf, lawyer Rob Moodie had taken a $4.5 million misfeasance claim against the army.

To prove misfeasance, it must be shown someone in public office acted maliciously in a manner likely to cause harm or injury. The attorney-general had applied to strike out the claim.

Mr Moodie said last year the case was about the army making false submissions and providing false evidence that the bridge was well built and that there was nothing in the army's design or construction that contributed to the accident.

Justice MacKenzie said the proceeding, which began in 2006, had not been started within six years of the cause of action for the alleged misfeasance in public office and if it was allowed to continue to trial, it would fail because of that limitation under law.

The judge said he had reached the clear view that it would not be in the interests of justice to allow it to continue.

"I consider that the plaintiffs (the Berrymans) face huge factual and conceptual difficulties ... there are major difficulties of causation which would have to be overcome."

He said as a matter of law that even if they established that the misfeasance affected their knowledge of a claim against the army, it did not cause any loss after April 2000 and the right to sue in respect of the construction of the bridge was barred before that date.

He agreed with the latest Court of Appeal judgment that the Berrymans were seeking to relitigate the matters that had been before the coroner in 1997.

"There can, in my view, be no public interest in allowing these matters to be further litigated in these proceedings, when there is no prospect that that might lead to the only remedy which can properly be claimed in these proceedings, namely a remedy in damages," he said.

- NZPA