COMPENSATION CLAIM.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 232, 1 October 1925, Page 6

COMPENSATION CLAIM.

HOW IT SHOULD BE PAID.

BOTH PARTIES CONSIDERED. A WAIKOWHAI CASE. ''Where it is admitted that compen. sation is payable the Court concerns itself primarily with the incapacitated man, whether he should be paid ia a lump sum, or in payments spread over a period of years. In the present case the amount payable in respect of partial and permanent incapacitation is 4/9 a week for 304 weeks, or six years. From the point of view of plaintiff that sum paid over a period of 304 weeks is very little." So stated Mr. Justice Frazer at the hearing this morning of a claim for compensation for the loss of two fingers, brought by Thomas William Horton (Mr. Luxford), against Edward Cullen (Mr. Hore), farmer, of Waikowhai, Auckland.

Plaintiff, in July last, while chopping wood for defendant, severed two finders and the total amount of the claim was £03 18/. The only point for the Court to decide was the maimer of payment. Mr. Frazer added in his judgment, made after a short retirement of the Court, that if the plaintiff was hampered in his ordinary work and had to follow another avocation payment in a lump sum was of more value to him, but before the Court came to that decision it must take into account the ability of the employer to pay in that form. The employer in this case was a labourer earning £4 8/ a week, who had shown a good deal of ambition to improve his position in the world, and he had got some distance ahead. He had admitted having a property and kiosk at Waikowhai worth at least £1500. The mortgage on it was £025. He also had other properties on which he had liabilities which they seemed able to carry, while there were reasonable prospects of doim» fairly well out of. strawbjrries. Though he did not have much cash his assets were worth very much more than tha mortgages. There did not seem to be any difficulty in the way of raising £50 to £60. "We have therefore decided to order payment by way of a lump sum, but to give the defendant three months in which to find it."

Judgment was gi\en for £5 6/, the amount outstanding to date, and for the remaining 300 weeks at 4/9 a week iv a lump sum to bo paid before December 31.