PENALTY OF KICKS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 49, 26 August 1930, Page 14

PENALTY OF KICKS

MAN LOSES LIFE

CLAM FOR COMPENSATION

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

WANGANUI, 25th August.

"The circumstances relating to this case are o£ an unusual and extraordinary nature/ said Mr.. W. J. Tread-well, in opening a case at the Arbitration Court this afternoon, in which £1000 was claimed from the V.M.C.A. by Donald Dunn Milligan as a result of the death of his foster father.

In 1929, counsel explained, the deceased had been secretary of the V.M.C.A. at Wanganui. He had had a free hand as to what games should be played at the institution. The boys had an asrangement by which the_ winner of a, game of ping-pong was to kick the loser on the buttocks, one kick for each losing point. The deceased Milligan, in September, 1928, played a game with one boy, saying prior to the contest that the winner would be entitled to exact the usual penalty. Milligan lost by 13 to 10. He told the boy to kick him three times, the boy at first demurred, but finally did so. Unfortunately one kick landed bo that Milligan received injuries as a result of which he died. Milligan was insured with the New Zealand Insurance Company by the association against accident. Argument proceeded as to whether the case was allowable, as the stipulated six months had expired before the action was taken.

The case was not taken any further for the present, Mr. Justice Frazer reserving his decision on the point.