KILLED BY FALLING TREE

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 135, 4 March 1929, Page 17

KILLED BY FALLING TREE

COMPENSATION CLAIM FAILS.

Judgment has been delivered by Mr. Justice Frazer in the Arbitration Court in the case in which Nellie Michalick, widow, of Taumarunui, claimed from Evan McGregor, farmer, of Turakina, compensation for the death of her husband, John Michalick, bush contractor, who died from injuries through a tree fallnig on him while working on defendant’s land. i Defendant had disposed of certain limber rights to Emily Archer, who engaged deceased and others to fell and remove the timber for her. While doing so Michalick was fatally injured. The Court held that the timber felling was not part- of the defendant’s business as a farmer, therefore he could not be made a party with the contractor who had the permit to cut the timber; neither was the work for the purpose of clearing his land. Deceased was hot doing work for which a payment was to be made by defendant to the grantee of the timber cut- ? Judgment was given for defendant, with leave to apply for costs.