COMPENSATION COURT

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29233, 17 June 1960, Page 15

COMPENSATION COURT

Judgment Reserved On Widow’s Claim

Decision was reserved by Judge Dalglish in the Compensation Court yesterday on a claim for compensation by the widow of one of the men who was drowned in Lake Emma on Sunday, July 20, 1958, during a goose-shooting expedition. Beverly Marilyn Hampton (Mr R. A. Young and Mr G. W. Rountree), widow of Kenneth Henry Millar Hampton, claimed compensation from Hart’s Aerial Topdressing, Ltd. (Mr R. P. Thompson) for the death of her husband. The hearing began on Wednesday. Yesterday Mr Thompson submitted that when the man Underwood fell through the ice on the lake an emergency was created and high as Hampton’s motives were there was no duty on him to go to the rescue of Underwood as part of his contract. It was not part of Hampton’s duty under his contract of duties to retrieve geese from the ice. Hampton did not do what he did in the course of his employment. It was a hazard he took upon himself. Underwood as it turned out was closer to safety than was Hampton and he managed to escape the consequences which overcame the other four.

Mr Young submitted that the evidence had established that Hampton was a servant of the respondent company in receipt of £l3 a week plus a bonus. It had been abundantly proved by the evidence that Hampton had followed duties in pursuit of his employment that day. Warren Hart, managing director of the firm, had issued indications of where Hampton should go to retrieve geese. Mr Young asked the Court to find that Hampton was in the course of his employment that day; that Hampton went on the ice because he was asked to go by his managing director, Hart; and that Hampton was on the ice in the course of his employment. A difficulty in the case was that the use of aircraft in association with shooting was a new development If the Court held that the widow’s claim succeeded it should award compensation at the rate of £9 9s a week for 274 weeks, a total of £2589, plus £5O for each of the two children and £B4 8s for funeral expenses. Judge Dalglish said that as a large sum was involved and there was no appeal from his decision it would probably be some little time before he gave his decision.