INSURANCE CLAIMANT

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 March 1936, Page 4

INSURANCE CLAIMANT

LAMENTS HIS FATE I The “African Insurance Record’’ recently reprinted thp following interesting and amusing letter addressed .to the claims department of an insurance company in Ottawa (Canada): — “Gentlemen: The soullessness of ■corporations such as yours is astounding. Let me review my case. I carry an accident policy in your company Jby the terms of which you agreed to pay me 25 dollars a week during such time as I was prevented from working because of an accident. A week ago I’ went around on Sunday morning to inspect a new house that is being built- for me. I climbed the stairs, or iratlnp- the ladder located where the stairs will be when the house is finished, and on the top floor I found a pile of bricks which were not needed there. Feeling industrious, I decided to remove the bricks. In The elevator shaft was a rope and pulley, and on bne end of the rope was a barrel. I pulled the barrel up to the top floor, and, after walking down ■die ladder, fastened the rope firmly at the bottom of the shaft. Then I climbed up the ladder again and filled .the barrel with bricks. Down the ladder I went again, five storeys mind jyoji, and untied the rope to let the barrel down. The barrel was heavier (than I was, and before I had time to study the proposition I was going up ’.the shaft with my speed increasing every minute. I thought of letting go the rope, but before 1 had decided to do so I was so high up that it seemed (more dangerous to let go than to hang on. So I held on. Half way up the elevator shaft I met the barrel of bricks coming down. The encounter was brief but spirited. I got the worst of it, and continued on my way toward the roof. That is. most of me went on, but my epidermis clung to the barrel and returned to earth. Then I struck the roof at the same time as the barrel struck the cellar. The shock knocked the’breath out of me, and the bottom out of the barrel. Then I was heavier than the empty barrel, and I started down the shaft while the barrel started lip. We met in the middle of the journey, and .again the barrel uppercut me, pounded my solar plexus, barked my shins, bruised my body, and skinned my face. When we became disentangled, .1 resumed my journey downward and the barrel went higher. Soon I was at the bottom, and stopped so suddenfly that I lost my remarkable presence ;of mind and let go of the rope. This released the barrel which had reached the top of the shaft, and it fell five storeys and landed squarely on lop of me —and it landed hard, too. “Consider the heartlessness of your company. I sustained five accidents /within two minutes. One on my journey up the shaft when I met the barrel of bricks. The second when 1 utruck Ihe roof. The thiM when I •met. the empty barrel. The fourth when 1 struck the bottom. The fifth I when the barrel struck me. Your agent states that it was only one accident. not five, and instead of receiving a payment at the rate of five times 25 dollars, 1 am’ only entitled to one .accident at the rate of one alone. I therefore request you to cancel my policy as I have made up my mind that I will not be skinned, either by a barrel or an insurance company.”