Injured In Gaol, Awarded £2462

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30478, 27 June 1964, Page 3

Injured In Gaol, Awarded £2462

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, June 26.

Joseph Harold Morgan, aged 25, storeman packer, was awarded general damages of £2300 and £162 special damage by a jury today in the Supreme Court for injuries suffered while serving a prison sentence.

Morgan sued the AttorneyGeneral, the nominal defendant for the Prison Department, for total damages of £5162.

The statement of claim said that on August 11, 1963, Morgan was serving nine months’ imprisonment at Mount Crawford Prison and, in accordance with orders he received from the chief officer, was working with another prisoner splitting logs on a hillside forming a portion of the prison reserve.

Morgan said he had proceeded several paces up the hillside and had slipped,

with the result that his right foot was struck by the . other prisoner’s axe. As a result of the accident, he had lost four toes of his foot and had suffered limitation and loss of Sensation of the big toe. He was now unable to work normally and was unfit to do heavy work or return to his previous occupation of freezing worker, truck driver or roofing ’arnT’lrpr Without Studs

The jury found the injuries were caused wholly or in part by failure of prison officers to exercise reasonable care for Morgan’s safety in requiring him to work while wearing boots without studs or other suitable means of preventing him from slipping, and failing to give him adequate instructions for performance of the work. The Attorney-General, In the statement of defence, denied negligence on the part of prison officers. As an alternative defence it was claimed that if the officers were negligent in the manner alleged, Morgan’s injury was solely caused or contribute to by Morgan himself. Morgan’s motion for judgment and the defendant’s motion for non-suit were reserved by Mr Justice Tompkins. Morgan was represented by Mr C. H. Arndt.