£7500 DAMAGES CLAIM

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27405, 19 July 1954, Page 6

£7500 DAMAGES CLAIM

JURY FINDS FOR PLAINTIFF HUSBAND’S DEATH IN FIRE (Neio Zealand Press Association) BLENHEIM, July 18. Mrs Violet Iris Dempster, a widow, was awarded £7500 damages by a jury in the Supreme Court yesterday, in a claim against the Railways Department Her husband, William Dempster, a railway ganger, was killed when burning-off operations at Lake Grassmere on March 17, 1952, became out of control. The plaintiff contended that the accident arose through negligence on the part of the department. On Thursday another jury awarded Mrs Lucy Elaine Young, a widow, £7500 damages, and upheld a claim that the department’s negligence had resulted in the death of her husband, Clyde Young, a railway serviceman, who also died in the Lake Grassmere fire. Mr Justice Adams adjourned the entering of a judgment on Saturday, when counsel for the Crown (Mr W. T. Churchward) applied for leave to move for judgment for the defendant, on the ground that there was no neglect on the part of the department. Giving its verdict, the jury added a rider saying that it considered that in future all burning-off operations should be carried out by gangs of men who had been specially instructed in fire control.