Copper hi-jack was not a riot
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• Richmond Metal Co. Ltd., metal merchants, of Crisp Road, Hammersmith, were awarded £4,000 damages and costs in the High Court on Monday of last week against J. Coales and Son Ltd., haulage contractors, for the value of a load of scrap copper which was stolen when a lorry was hijacked in Hackney in February 1967. It was later recovered, without its load.
Mr. Justice Mocatta said the contractors accepted in court that the onus was on them to show that the loss occurred without negligence by themselves or their driver, or that the circumstances constituted a riot so as to come within the exclusion contained in Clause 5 of the RHA's conditions of carriage.
The judge said he was unable to find that the loss occurred without negligence by the driver, David John Cantwell. After collision with the thieves' vehicle, he alighted from his lorry with the engine running and the immobilizer not engaged.
The only evidence as to how the hijacking occurred came from the driver, on whose evidence the judge would not rely without corroboration.
The judge said he was therefore unable to hold that the loss occurred by reason of a riot.