IF PLAINTIFF DIES

Evening Post, Volume C, Issue 84, 6 October 1920, Page 8

IF PLAINTIFF DIES

DOES BIGHT TO 'SUE PASS ON?

If a plaintiff in a claim for compensation dies before the case is heard, is the next-of-kin entitled to proceed, against the defendant? This was the question before the Court of Appeal this afternoon in the case, stated by Mr. Justice Stringer, of George Bodell, of Wellington, against William Cable and Co., Ltd., ironfounders. The plaintiff Bodell was the father pi Violet Allen Whitley, whose husband, Thomas Henry Whitley, v-aa killed in November, 1919, in the course of his employment by the defendants. Mrs. Whitley commenced an action against the Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company, the owners, of the Kia Ora, on which her husband was working for the defenda-nts when he met his death. Both plaintiff and defendants were agreed there was negligence such as would have entitled Mrs. Whitley to have maintained her action against the shipping company under Thei Deaths by Accidents Compensation Act, .1908.. However, she died about the 20th December. 1919, after a statement of defence had been delivered. The plaintiff, father of the la-te Mrs. Whitley, obtained letters of administration to her estate and effects, but he was not a dependent of his. son-in-law. The question for the Court was whether in the circumstances the plaintiff was entitled to recover the com-i pensation to which Mrs. Whitley would have beea entitled had she survived." There were no children by the maTriage and no surviving dependents. The claim was that on- the death of the original plaintiff '.he right to compensation survived her and passed to the present plaintiff as her legal personal representative. The defence was that the defendant's liability abated with her death.