Kennedy v London Express Newspapers, Ltd

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 26 March 1931
• Date: 26 March 1931
• Docket Number: (1930. No. P. 577/30.)
• Court: Supreme Court (Irish Free State)

[S. C., I.F.S.]

Kennedy

and

London Express Newspapers

Limited

Offer by English newspaper company of free accident insurance to their readers - Acceptance of offer by reader in Irish Free State - By what law contract to be governed - Conditions of offer - Disputes to be referred to arbitration - Arbitrator's award a condition precedent to liability - Action brought claiming benefits of the insurance - Motion to stay proceedings - Practice - Common Law Procedure Amendment Act (Ir.), 1856 (19 20 Vict. c. 102), s. 14.

Defendants, an English newspaper company, which publish in England a newspaper that has a certain circulation in the Irish Free State, set out in their issue of January 1st, 1929, an advertisement of a free accident insurance scheme for the benefit of their "registered readers." Under this scheme the sum of £100 was, subject to certain conditions, payable, in the case of the death of a "registered reader," to his or her legal personal representatives. The conditions provided (inter alia) that a "registered reader" must be registered in the books of the newspaper as having given to a registered newsagent a signed order for the newspaper and be receiving it daily from such newsagent, or be a postal subscriber receiving it directly from the publishers; that the insurance would cease on January 8th, 1930; and that, in the event of any dispute arising in relation to the insurance, the dispute should be referred to arbitration, in accordance with the statutory provisions for the time being in force applicable thereto, and the obtaining of an ward should be a condition precedent to liability. In the issue of the newspaper of January 1st, 1930, the advertisement of the insurance scheme was repeated for the year 1930, with some modifications, the principal being that the arbitration was to be in London. The advertisement stated that there was no need for readers already registered to re-register. In January, 1929, the plaintiff's wife was registered as a reader for the purpose of the free accident insurance. In August, 1930, she was accidentally killed by an omnibus, and the plaintiff claimed the £100 payable under the insurance scheme. A correspondence then ensued between the plaintiff's...