ARBITRATION COURT.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19258, 13 March 1928, Page 3

ARBITRATION COURT.

WIDOW CLAIMS £936. JUDGE NON-SUITS PLAINTIFF. A claim for compensation was beard by the Arbitration Court yesterday, his Honour Mr Justice Frazer presiding, with him Messrs W.< Scott and A. L. Monteith.

Plaintiff was Annabella Weir, widow of Kirwee (Mr Murphy), and defendant David John Smith, contractor, of Kirwee (Mr Hunter). _ . In her statement of claim, plamtitt said that she is the widow of Harry George Weir, deceased, who was employed by defendant on his chaffcutting plant at the time of his death as the result of an accident, on September 15th, 1927. The accident had occurred at a railway crossing in Kirwee, at which a motor-ear, in which Weir was a passenger, and which was driven bv another man, collided with a railway train, resulting in Weir's death. The accident, plaintiff alleged, arose out of and in the course of the employment of Weir, at a time when his average weekly earnings were £4 10s. She therefore claimed the sum of £936 by way of compensation to herself and her "three children, and a further £lB as funeral expenses of the deceased The defence denied that the accident arose out. of or in the course of the employment of Weir by defendant, and further denied that his wages averaged £4 10s per week. A large number of witnesses were called by plaintiff to testify regarding trie nature of employment on chatfcutters. , In giving his decision, his Honoui stated that the whole question was whether the accident had occurred during the term of employment. An attempt had been made to show that men were required to assist in setting right anything that went wrong with the plant when it was travelling to its destination. That might have been so in some cases, but it did not apply to the one before the Court. Tt appeared to the Court that in the present case there was a suspension of employment from the time the plant lelt Charing Cross until it arrived at Kirwee.

Plaintiff was ' non-suited without costs.