COMPENSATION COURT Freezing Company Resists Claim By Worker

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31321, 17 March 1967, Page 8

COMPENSATION COURT Freezing Company Resists Claim By Worker

A freezing-worker claimant was attempting to relate a hernia disability suffered in May, 1965, to an accident in January, 1963, at the Belfast works of Thomas Borthwick and Sons, Ltd., said the company in defence of the claim in the Compensation Court yesterday. The claimant, Iwi Te Aika (Mr B. A. Barrer) gave evidence before Judge A. P. Blair that on January 28, 1963, he had slipped on a broken duckboard, and fallen, while working at packing beef offal for export, having been carrying a 601 b carton. He had hurt an ankle, and felt pain in the groin, but carried on his job after a half-day off work. Later, in January, 1965, when the pace of work had increased with the rise in the beef kill from 96 to 150 beasts a day, he felt more pain from a swelling in the groin, which led to an operation for a hernia in May. From this disablement, said Te Aika, he had been off work from May 3 to August 9, 1965, for which time compensation was sought.

Te Aika’s evidence was confirmed by George Kane, a foreman retired from Borthwick’s, and Colin Herbert Wright, an offal packer, who both said that Te Aika had complained of pain in the groin at the time of his accident in 1963. Te Aika, said Mr C. B. Atkinson (for the defendant company), had not brought himself within the hernia code in the Worker’s Compensation Act, which required the clearest evidence that such injury was caused by accident at work —and not through a congenital disposition to hernia, as the plaintiff’s surgeon, Mr P. W. Cotter, had admitted was the case with Te Aika, and indeed, most people. Te Aika’s claim was also brought out of time, Mr Atkinson submitted.

On this point, Mr Barrer said that until the hernia developed, and required an operation, with three months’ disablement, Te Aika had no cause to lodge proceedings. The employer had not been

prejudiced by the claim being brought late. Judge Blair reserved devision. Claim Against AttorneyGeneral Decision was also reserved on a claim by Andrew Ross McCallum, a Ministry of Works painter (Mr E. O. Sullivan) for compensation for 10 weeks’ disablement as a result of hernia complications said to have been suffered when he shifted a refrigerator while painting in the sergeants* mess at the Royal New Zealand Air Force station, Wigram, in July, 1964. For the Attorney-General, in opposition to McCallum’s claim, Mr N. W. Williamson submitted there was no evidence that the aggravation of the plaintiff’s condition was caused by shifting the refrigerator, or anything he had done at work. Cases Settled

The settlement of five other cases set down for hearing was announced yesterday, Judge Blair entering formal judgments by consent, for the following claimants: Henry John Robertson, a freezing worker (Mr B. A. Barrer), for a lump sum of £l6O, and costs and medical expenses amounting to £25 4s, against Thomas Borthwick and Sons, Ltd. Gordon James Bowden, a cleaner, (Mr Barrer), for a lump sum of £l4l 2s, and costs and medical expenses amounting to £5B 18s, against Lane, Walker, Rudkin, Ltd. Ernest Victor Rowe, a general hand (Mr Barrer), for a lump sum of £l3l 3s, and costs

and medical expenses amounting to £5B 7s, against Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd.

Gordon Gosset Mather, a fabric presser (Mr Barrer), for a sum of £5O, against Lane, Walker, Rudkin, Ltd. lan James Falvey (Mr P. F. Tempero), a freezing worker, for a sum of £5O against the Canterbury Frozen Meat Company, Ltd.