DEATH OF SON

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 140, 15 June 1936, Page 6

DEATH OF SON

COMPENSATION CLAIM

COURT'S JUDGMENT

The Arbitration Court has delivered reserved judgment in a claim for compensation in which Charles Sims, ironmonger, Wellington, was plaintiff, and H. Moult, Ltd., lift engineers, were defendants. On July 13, 1935, Gordon Sims, an apprentice in the employ of the defendants, was severely injured by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment, and he died ;of the injuries received. The plaintiff, father of Gordon Sims, brought the action in which he claimed that he was partially dependent on the earnings and assistance of his son, and he sought compensation as such partial dependant. The defendant denied that the plaintiff was a partial dependant, and the question of dependency was the sole issue before the Court. The Court in its judgment stated: "The son Gordon had been in the defendant's employ for only three j weeks when the accident occurred. Prior to that period of service he had ! been at school. While at school he had each afternoon and on Saturday mornings assisted his father" in the business by delivering parcels to customers. When he left school and became apprenticed to the defendant his younger brother had taken up the work of parcel delivery. Gordon, while at school and also after he became apprenticed to the defendant had assisted his father in the evenings and on Saturday afternoons in the manufacture of certain articles (meat safes, step ladders, coat racks, letter boxes, etc.) for sale in the hardware business. "The onus of proving dependency : lies on the plaintiff. We have given careful consideration to the evidence that has been called, and we have come to the conclusion that it falls short of ■establishing that at the date of the death the plaintiff was a partial dependant of his son. Judgment must therefore in our opinion go for the defendants, with costs to be fixed on application." Mr. E. P. Hay appeared for the plaintiff, and Mr. W. H. Cunningham for the defendants.