HELD OK RAILWAY LINE.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20563, 3 June 1932, Page 15

HELD OK RAILWAY LINE.

WOMAN'S SENSATIONAL ALLEGATIONS. AN AMAZING CASE. (rREdS ASSOCIATION TZLEGBAM.) WELLINGTON, June 2. Sensational allegations that a husband held his wife on the railway lino and allowed the engine to. crush her leg, in order that he could collect the accident insurance, were made in two cases which commenced to-day before Mr Justice Reed in the Supreme. Qourt. Plaintiff is Elizabeth Ivy Johnson, who claims £.200 from the Commercial Union Assurance Co. and £SOO from the Australasian Temperance and Gcn- , era! Mutual Life Assurance Society in respect to an accident policy taken out Avith these companies. Plaintiff's leg was crushed in an accident at the Ohau railway crossing in May, 1930. The insurance companies stato they have paid out thG money due under the policies to plaintiff's husband, and hold receipts allegedly signed by plaintiff. Plain- ! tiff denies that she signed these receipts, and alleges that they are forgeries. Mrs Johnson's story is that at the time of the accident she was not on good terms* with her husband, who was going with another woman. She alleges that he deliberately fouled the crossing with the intention of maiming or killing her, and when she found herself free of the car her husband held -lier so that her leg was crushed. His Honour: Po you suggest that earlier in the year your husband had you insured against accident with the intention of 'causing you to be injured some time later on? Witness: I do, sir. Plaintiff's Evidence. Mrs Johnson in the course of evidence saiil that on the night of May 6th, 1930, she was driving in a car with her husband to their home at Kauinati. As the car approached the Ohau crossing sho saw a train coming, but it was still some distance away. The car slowed down and eventually, stopped with the front wheels on the cattle stop at the crossing. , Witness had been watching the lights »f the train, but when the car stopped she turned to speak to her husband. She found she was alone in the car. It was very dark, and she could not see her husband anywhere. She attempted to open the two front doors of the car, but the one on the left-hand side was damaged, and could not be opened from the inside, and although she tried hard she could not get the door on the driver's side to open either. Climbing over the front seat into the back of the car she tried the rear doors, but in spite of her efforts these also remained closed. She then saw her husband suddenly appear in front of the car, and put his hands up. She then fainted in the back of the ear, and the next thing'she remembered was that she was lying on her right side in front of the car, with her, husband crouching above her. lie had one hand around her head blocking her ears and mouth, and was holding her legs with the other. Sho tried to free herself, but found she was helpless. His Honour: Was tho train coming on all tho time?—l couldn't say where the train was at this time. I was trying to remember what had happened. Leg Under Train. There was then a slight bump and the car moved, she added. The engine of the train hit the car and then her left leg seemed to crunch. Counsel: Did you then realise the position?— Yes; I realised then that my husband put my leg under the train, and if tho train had not pulled up where it did both my legs would have been under it. Witness continued that another car soon came along and she was conveyed to hospital. Her husband accompanied her and begged her not to tell the police for the sake of their children.

His Honour: Was thero any enquiry into tho matter. Counsel for Mrs Johnson: Not for twelve months afterwards, unfortunately. Mrs Johnson said that after she had been operate/1 on for tho injury to her leg she told Dr. Hunter about the whole affair. Alleged Threat. Mrs Johnson said that after leaving tho Levin Hospital, wherei her. leg was amputated, she went to a Wellington private hospital. She denied signing any insurance receipt. She left the hospital on August 21st, and on the second night she was at Home she slipped on her crutches, and her husband said, "Why don't you stand on your legs?" She replied, "Because you took one off." Her husband then liad a most peculiar look on his face, and she had to go into a bedroom wtfiere her mother and her daughter were. She locked tho door, but her husband hammered on it, and threatened to cut all their throats. On August 2Gth sho loft home, and she had 1 not returned since. On September 29th she was legally separated from her husband. Witness said she first knew tho insurance money had been drawn just before she left hospital in August. She taxed, her husband with the matter time later, but he denied it. Prior to the legal . separation ■ there were several conferences at the office of her husband's solicitor. At the first conference nothing was said about the insurance money. His Honour: That's what I can't understand. Here you know your husband has appropriated or spent this money, £7OO or £.BOO, and you say nothing about it, while you deal with comparatively, small matters, like beds and things. Why didn't you say something about i + f Witness: I had other 'things to think about. In the course* of further cross-exam-ination, witness denied signing the receipts. ' _ Counsel for the T. and G. Company: According to you,. your husband is murderer, forger, and wholesale liar? —And according to him I am a lunatic. And yet when you-left the Bowen street hospital you went back to this monster?—'Where else was I to go! My children and my mother were there. After further evidence, the case was adjourned till Monday.