COMPENSATION GRANTED

Evening Star, Issue 23882, 12 May 1941, Page 6

COMPENSATION GRANTED

WIDOWS CLAIM SUCCEEDS WAIWERA SOUTH ACCIDENT Judgment has been given by the Compensation Court in the case in which Mary M'lntyro Melvin, of Waiwera South, claimed damages of £I,OOO, together with funeral and medical expenses totalling £3l 19s 6d, from Colin Campbell Stuart, sawmiller, Waiwera South, in respect of the accidental death of her husband, on behalf of herself and three children. The claim was that the plaintiff’s husband had been instructed by Stuart to do certain mechanical work to a private motor car owned by Stuart, and that in the course of carrying out these instructions he had driven the car with a view to testing it, and that on a level crossing at Waiwera the car capie into collision with a train, and Melvin had been killed instantaneously. It was claimed that the accident had arisen during the course of Melvin’s employment. The defence denied that the accident had arisen during the course of Melvin’s employment. As a further defence it was stated that Melvin, by driving a motor vehicle across a level crossing or elsewhere on a railway when an engine- or any carriage or wagon was approaching within half a mile of such crossing, had committed a breach of the provisions of the Government Railway Act, 1926. In giving the decision of the His Honour Mr Justice O'Regan, after discussing the legal points raised, said it was held that the accident occurred in the course of and arose out of the employment of deceased for the reasons, first, that he was at the time obeying his employer’s express instructions, and, secondly, that section 29 of the Railways Act, 1926, was irrelevant. The weekly earning, £5 5s 7d, entitled the plaintiff to the maximum compensation. Accounts had been put in verifying the funeral and medical expenses, and so the plaintiff was entitled to £I,OOO compensation and £3l 19s 6d funeral and medical expenses. The court allowed costs of £2l and witnesses’ expenses pursuant to the scale prescribed by the Magistrate’s Court Regulations, these to be settled by the registrar failing agreement between counsel. Judgment was given accordingly. At the hearing Mr C. J. L. White appeared for the plaintiff and Mr G. V. Murdoch for the defendant.