£7000 AWARDED TO WIDOW
DEATH IN DOBSON MINE ACCIDENT (From Our Own Reporter) GREYMOUTH .November 22. An award of £7OOO to Mrs Emma Martha Catherine Granger as damages for the death of her husband in an accident in the Dobson coal mine last April was made by a jury in the Supreme Court at Greymouth. Judgment for this amount was entered by his Honour, Mr Justice Adams, together with costs. Summing up before the jury retired, his Honour said the facts resolved themselves into a question of liability and of damages. The case rested upon two separate allegations of breach of statutory duty and negligence referring to an absence of suitable tools for the erection of props It was a question rather of whether it was reasonable practice to avoid having Grainger shovelling coal under a roof before it had been made secure even if it meant taking more time His Honour told the jury that an unstable roof was a potential killer The statute demanded that such a roof be made secure. At the time of the accident Grainger had been engaged in shovelling coal into a box and had not been doing anything to make the roof safe. “Counsel for the plaintiff has told you that the claim for £BOOO is a just one. and that you should award every penny of it.” said his Honour. “On the facts, in my opinion, the claim is exorbitant, and you would not be justified in allowing anything like that amount. The proper course for you to adopt would be to disregard altogether the amount claimed and arrive at a sum on your own conclusions.” His Honour said a sounder approach would be to ask what pecuniary value the wife and children derived from the husband, or what they would have derived. The jury should ask themselves what was a fair and adequate sum to allow, and at the same time do justice *to the widow and family, to the Crown and to the taxpayer.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28133, 23 November 1956, Page 16
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334£7000 AWARDED TO WIDOW Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28133, 23 November 1956, Page 16
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