Judge Sets Conditions In Award To Widow

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28758, 2 December 1958, Page 25

Judge Sets Conditions In Award To Widow

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, December 1. A claim for £2589, together with funeral expenses, by the widow of John William Powell, a pilot who met his death during his employment, is granted by Judge Archer in a reserved decision in the Compensation Court. The claim was made against the Hauraki Aero Club under the Workers’ Compensation Act, and was based on the fact that Powell met his death while flying -an aircraft belonging to the club. The claim was heard in Auckland on November 13. The judgment says that administration of the moneys should be retained in the hands of the Public Trustee, and that, “under no circumstances’’ should the plaintiff, Judith Ann Powell, receive a lump sum from them. The claims of Mrs Powell and the younger of two children to the compensation moneys are not easily decided, says the judgment. The husband had obtained a decree nisi in divorce by virtue of his own evidence and signed confession of adultery by the plaintiff.

“In evidence before me, the plaintiff denied that she had ever committed adultery, and said that the confession she had made in the divorce proceedings was untrue. She stated on oath' that the younger, child was, in truth, the child of . the deceased. “I am concerned as to the future of the younger child, and I very much doubt whether the plaintiff has appreciated the extent to which her conduct may have affected his welfare. “There are several factors which give support to the probability that the confession was true, but if so the plaintiff has committed perjury in this Court, and I hesitate to believe that she would do so merely to establish that she and her younger child were dependants of the deceased. “I have the gravest’ suspicion that the divorce was arranged in collusion, and it as -by, no means unlikely that the evidence of adultery was fabricated.’’ Judge Archer says he is satisfied that the elder child was left by the deceased as a total dependant, and Mrs Powell as a partial dependant.