STRANGE TALES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 164, 14 July 1930, Page 19

STRANGE TALES.

BARMAIDS TO SKELETONS.

INTRICACIES OP THE LAW

COMPENSATION CLAIM STOEIES

Oid men and young, some on crutches, daily come before the Workers' Compensation Commission, running the gamut of physical injury, and seeking settlement of their varying claims, states the "Sydney Sun." One man walked in with his head enclosed in a steel cage as the result of a fractured neck, another tottered into the box almost on the verge of collapse, while yet another ran up and down the court-room to demonstrate his recovery. Barmaids, labourers, seamen and shop assistants, bring strange cases with even stranger injuries, and present many problems for Judge Perdriau and the Commission to solve. Only recently a man had his case settled from injuries received in 1926. He had suffered severe head injuries, and as a result told medical men he heard a voice telling him to go and kill a lady friend. At the time, his case was so bad that he did not even know the day of the week, or whether it was winter or summer. To-day he is apparently well and about. Fell 80 Feet. Varying claims from £850 to as low as 30/ are heard by the Commission. A young man limped into court with a strange assortment of fancy articles he had made. He had suffered a fractured spine by falling from a building over SOft to the ground. Yet he recovered sufficiently to be established in business, as the result of his handiwork during convalescence.

An unusual ease was that of a man in receipt of £3 a week in respect to an injury, who married, and on returning to work met Avith a second accident. In addition to claiming £3 a week, he claimed £1 a week for his wife from the date of marriage. It was held that he was not entitled to compensation in respect to his wife as from the date of marriage, because at the time of the first injury he was single. Compensation was allowed in respect to his wife from the date of the second injury.

Equally strange was the case of a single man who received an injury and who claimed fl a week in respect of a woman who had been living with

him for ovei\ six years as his wife. In that case, as the woman was totally dependent upon the earnings of the man, an award was made of £1 a week.

Having had his lunch in a gravel pit where he worked, a man was filling his pipe when he was almost buried in the pit by a bank collapsing. His claim for compensation failed as the injuries were not received in the coarse of his employment.

Being off duty and not required to assist, a worker went up to the forecastle head of a stranded ship when she was being floated off. He was told His aid was not required, and while he was standing there a hook snapped and struck him, injuring him fatally. In his case no award was made for his dependents.

The relatives of a tram conductor who died as the result of unusual exposure in a mid-winter rain storm, brought a successful case and an award of £858 was made. Barmaid's Claim. The other day a barmaid sought, to show that an incapacity from which she suffered was due to the wet floor of a bar-room, aggravated by handling ice and wet glasses. One man a few weeks ago told a harrowing story of his incapacity, and of his -inability to get about. But when a witness told the court he had' seen him literally emulating a gazelle in jumping over gutters, the man was promptly told to leave the court. Possibly the most unusual case was one in which, to facilitate the evidence, a skeleton was brought into court, and skilled medical hands explored its mysteries of inter-costal spaces, and clavicles. It was later ascertained that the man had been operated upon on the wrong side.