CAUGHT IN ROPE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 303, 22 December 1932, Page 19

CAUGHT IN ROPE.

RELIEF WORKER'S DEATH. COMPENSATION FOR WIDOW. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, Wednesday. The death of a relief worker through an accident when travelling on a lorry after work formed the basis on an interesting compensation case in the Arbitration Court to-day. Argument centred round the liability of certain parties for the accident, and whether the relief worker owed a duty to his employers to be travelling in a lorry when he met his death.

Plaintiff in the action was Elizabeth Sarah O'Neill, widow, of Rangiora, and the defendants were the Rangiora Borough Council and the North Canterbury Electric Power Board. The Alliance Insurance Company and the Yorkshire Insurance Company were' interested in the action as third parties. Five counsel were engaged.

On the journey home to Rangiora from work O'Neill was sitting at the back of a lorry with a tarpaulin round him when the rope of the tarpaulin caught in the wheels. He was pulled off and killed instantly. Defendants and the insurance companies denied that O'Neill was in their employment when he was killed. His Honor found that there was no doubt that O'Neill was killed by an accident arising in the course of his employment, so that his employer was liable. On the question of who was O'Neill's employer, his Honor said that O'Neill was certainly in the employ of the Rangiora Borough Council. It had applied for an unemployment grant and was expending it as authorised by the Finance Act. The evidence showed that the understanding all through was that the council was employing the men. the Power Board merely finding work without accepting responsibility. Judgment was given for plaintifi against the Rangiora Borough Council for £591 1/4, funeral and medical expenses £23 18/, and costs £15 15/,