SUPREME COURT Case for defence in $50,000 claim

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33033, 28 September 1972, Page 19

SUPREME COURT Case for defence in $50,000 claim

The hearing of a claim for general damages of $50,000 by Miriama Carney, aged 45, against her former employer, W. T. Murray, Ltd, a silver and stainless steelwear manufacturer, for injuries suffered to her right hand, continued in the Supreme Court yesterday before Mr Justice Wilson and a jury. His Honour will sum up this morning.

Messrs B. McClelland and C. A. McVeigh appear for Mrs Carney and Messrs J. G. Leggat and I. J. D. Hall for W. T. Murray, Ltd. Evidence has been given that Mrs Carney’s right hand was crushed ir an electrically heated plastic mould at the defendant company’s factory on July 27, 1970. Two fingers were amputated in hospital and two fingers will not work. She has virtually no grip in the right hand and cannot raise her right arm much above her shoulder.

In his address to the jury Mr Leggat said that the accident could not have happened in the way Mrs Carney said. She said that she must have accidentally knocked the lever. If that was so, the jaws would have taken tw r o minutes and a half to close, and that happened directly in front of her where she was working with the air hose.

Mrs Carney said that the jaws closed reasonably quickly, but for that to have happened she would have had to pull out another hooktype lever, which required some pressure and could not be done accidentally. Then the jaws would have taken eight seconds to close. Mrs Carney could not have it both ways. Mr Leggat said he acknowledged that the machine was not guarded and that that contributed to Mrs Carney’s serious injury. But that was not the end of the matter. The law required employers to ensure the safety of their workers, but it also required that workers took care to ensure their own safety.

The defendant company had used machines of this type for about 20 years and there had not been an accident of this kind or severity until Mrs Carney’s. It was not a case where the employer had been grossly thoughtless or recklessly disregarded the safety of its workers. Mrs Carney had used the machine for about two years and had performed the same operation thousands of times. Mrs Carney had done something which caused an accident which had never happened in 20 years. Mrs Carney had suffered a serious injury and distressing pain. Her enjoyment of life had been diminished and her earning capacity had been reduced. But even when full weight was given to all those factors it was not possible to come near the figure of $50,000 which was claimed. Her claim was extravagantly high and was out of all proportion to other injury claims.