COMPENSATION CLAIM

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27051, 28 May 1953, Page 7

COMPENSATION CLAIM

MAN’S TUSSLE WITH WORKMATE

DECISION RESERVED "It is clear that this man has a softened spine for his age and that such injuries as he had could have been caused by little or no violence.’’ said Dr. D. McK. Dickson, in his evidence to the Compensation Court yesterday, when the case was continued in which Francis Henry Swaney, a garage foreman, claimed compensation from Blackwell Motors, Ltd., for an injury suffered in an accident on July 23, 1952, when he was tripped by a fellow worker, injuring his back on a concrete floor.

The hearing was resumed before Judge Dalglish. Mr B. A. Barrer appeared for the plaintiff and Mr E. M. Hay for the company. Dr. Dickson said he examined Swaney on January 29, 1953. He was wearing a brace and could not-move very much. His back movements were slow. Later he saw X-ray photographs of Swaney, and he agreed with the radiologist that he had a compressed fracture of the twelfth dorsal vertebra body, with moderate wedging. His lumbar bones were soft for a man of his age. The X-ray showed a slight deformity. Persons with this type of injury took at least a year to reach the final stage of recovery, and he considered Swaney might take longer. Usually, backs injured in this way would return, more or less, to their pre-accident state, and the final disability would be a small one. The injury suffered by Swaney could have been produced from falling on a wooden floor. He thought it would be another six months before the plaintiff got back to his pre-accident state, with little or no, or a minor deformity. To Mr Barrer, Dr. Dickson said Swaney would have about a 10 per cent, disability. Mr Hay submitted that the accident did not arise out of Swaney’s employment. It was due entirely to sky-larking and it made no difference if both were sky-larking or if it was a one-sided affair. Evidence given showed that the worker, West, was given to shaping up to people in a friendly manner and was always on for a -bit of horseplay. Mr Hay quoted decisons in similar cases in support of his submissions. Even if West was the only one skylarking, Swaney was still not eligible for compensation, he said. Mr Barrer submitted that if Swaney’s account of the incident was correct, it was clear that he gave an instruction to two men to do a job and he had done nothing to provoke West’s subsequent actions. Swaney s evidence was supported by witnesses for the defence and another witness gave evidence that he had never seen Swaney indulging in horseplay. Evidence also showed that Swaney was an uhwilling party to the horseplay and there was nothing more that Swaney could have done. He submitted the accident arose out of and in the course of his employment since Swaney had given an instruction to the two men in the way he had done on previous occesions. The Court reserved decision.