RELIEF WORKER’S DEATH

Evening Star, Issue 21292, 22 December 1932, Page 5

RELIEF WORKER’S DEATH

JUDGMENT AGAINST BOROUGH COUNCIL [Pe» United Press Association.] CHRISTCHURCH, December 21. The death of a relief worker through an accident when travelling on a lorry after work formed the basis of an interesting compensation case in the Arbitration Court, to-day. Argument centred round the liability of certain parties for the accident and whether the relief worker owed a duty to his employers to be travelling in a lorry when he met hisi death. The plaintiff in the action was Elizabeth Sarah O’Neill, widow, of Rangiora, and the defendants were the Rangiora Borough Council and the North anterbury Electric Power Board. The Alliance Insurance Company and the Yorkshire Insurance Company were interested in the action as third parties. Five counsel are engaged in the case. On his journey home to Rangiora from work O’Neill was sitting at the back of a lorry, with the tarpaulin round him, when the rope of the tarpaulin got caught in the wheels, and he was pulled off and killed instantly. The defendants and the insurance companies deny that O’Neill was in their employment when he was killed. His Honour found that there was no doubt that O’Neill was killed by an accident arising in the course of his employment, so that the body which was, his employer was liable. On the question of who was O’Neill’s employer His Honour said , that . O’Neill was certainly in the employ'of the Rangiora Borough Council. It had applied for an unemployment grant, and was expending it as authorised by the Finance Act. The evidence showed that the understanding all through was that the council was employing the men, and the Power Board merfely finding the work without accepting responsibility. J udgment would be for the plaintiff against the Rangiora Borough Council for £591 Is 4d, funeral and medical expenses £23 18s, and costs (£ls 15s).