ARBITRATION COURT

Greymouth Evening Star, 27 April 1938, Page 2

ARBITRATION COURT

WEST COAST SITTINGS. COMMENCE AT GREYMOUTH Th© West Coast sittings of the Arbitration Court commenced at Greymouth this morning, and are to continue until about the middle of next month, there being over 20 compensation cases and several industrial disputes for hearing. The members of the Court are Mr. Justice O’Regan (President), Mr. W. Cecil Prime (employers’ representative) and Mr. A. L. Monteith (employees’ representative). ' The first case taken was an application by the New Zealand Drivers' Federation to extend the Dominion (except Westland) Motor and Horse Drivers’ Award to the Westland District. Mr. F. C. Allerby, Secretary of the Federation, appeared in support of the application. Mr. Allerby said that when the application was filed, on April 28, 1937, Mr. McDonald (secretary of the Employers’ Federation) had told him that there would be no opposition. The position was that the Westland District was not a party to the present operating of the award and it was the desire of the Federation to have it covered. In Westland, the driveis were under no award, and it was the desire of the Federation to put. them under the award, so they would have its protection. His Honor: That is the whole object. of awards. Mr. Allerby said that the Westland drivers hud not been organised when the award was made in 1936, but since then they had been registered as a Union. His Honor: Has not that award expired ? Mr. Allerby: Yes, it expired m December, but it remains in operation until such time as' a new award is made. His Honor agreed that that was so. under Section 91. of the I.C. and A. Act. He asked whether it had occurred to Mr. Allerby whether the Court had jurisdiction to extend the operations of the award, after it hail expired. He had not considered it. and would reserve the point in the meantime. Mr. Allerby pointed out that the application would have come before the Court before the award had expired, if it had been possible for the Court to sit on the West Coast. His' Honor: Is a new award brewing? Mr. Allerby: Yes. His Honor: Probably “brewing” is rather an indelicate word to use in regard to awards, but 1 mean, are proceedings being taken to’ make a new a wa rd ? Mr. Allerby said that dates for Conciliation Council proceedings in connection with a new award had already been fixed. His Honor intimated that the Court would take time to consider the point as to whether they bad jurisdiction to deal with the applic tion, in view’ of the fact that the award had expired.

COMPENSATION CASE The first of the compensation cases called was a petition of right by Lemon James Mant.horpe, labourer, of Stillwater, who sought compensation from the Crown for alleged total disability, arising out of an accident al the Kiwi bridge, on May 26, 1937. Mr. W. Douglas Taylor appeared for the suppliant and Mr. F. A. Kitchingham for the Crown. The petition of right set out that suppliant was, on May 26. 193< and for some time prior thereto, employed near Stillwater as a labourer by the Public Works Department. On May 26, 1937. whilst, so employed the suppliant sustained personal injury by accident, when a scaffolding plank slipped, causing him to fall, as a result of which he sustained injuries to the head, hip and spinal regions. By reason of the accident, suppliant had. down to the present time, been totally disabled and will in future be totally disabled from following his usual or any employment. Suppliant thus prayed for an order (a) for a weekly payment, of £3 6/8 to commence from the date of the accident (credit being given for any amounts paid to date) and to continue until the same is ended, diminished or redeemed or such lump sum in lieu thereof as may be just; (b) for the sum of £1 medical expenses; (c) for costs of the action; d) for such further or other relief as may be just.

The statement of defence denied that the injuries set out in the petition had received by suppliant, and claimed that suppliant had recovered from all injury sustained by reasons of the accident, and that compensation at the rate of £2 16/9 per week had been paid up to December 31, 1937, together with medical fee. His Honor said that apparently the whole question was one of amount of compensation. MEDICAL REPORT. Mr. Taylor said that it had been agreed that suppliant’s actual weekly earnings were £4 5/2. Following the accident, he received stitches in the head, but after a day or two in bed he complained of pains in the hip, and I was subsequently ordered to hospital. The position to-day, was that he had a. strain or sprain of the left sacroiliac joint, which, it was admitted, had been previously weakened by arthritis. He (Mr. Taylor) would put in a report from Dr. Cotter, of Christchurch, in which suppliant’s disability was estimated at 100 per cent. On the basis of that report he asked for full compensation to date and a lump sum for total disability, or else an “odd lot’’ declaration, under which the onus was on the employer to show that there was a job, which suppliant could do, open to him. He would prefer a lump sum for the reason that it would enable suppliant to establish his wife and himself in some sort of business and he would be free from the worry of any possible stoppage of compensation. Also, the payment of weekly compensation might debar suppliant from participating in the proposed superannuation scheme of the Government at least to a much greater extent than a lump sum would. Suppliant’s compensation had been stopped for a- period, although it had been adjusted since, and he wished to register a protest against such action by some Departmental officer, which had also occurred in other compensation cases. Mr. Kitchingham said that the Department had acted on the certificate of a doctor, who had given massage to suppliant and who, as the result of a temporary improvement, estimated that he would be fit to "work in four weeks. Suppliant, in evidence, stated that at

I he time of the accident lie was working on a face at the Kiwi bridge, neat Stillwater. He was pulling a plank, out with a. pick, when it pulled out suddenly and he fell back, 14 feet. He was 59 years of age, married, and bad one child, aged 17. who was a cripple and partly dependent on him. At the time of the accident he had five or six stitches put in his head. He felt the hip sore from the beginning, but it got worse while he was in bed, resting, and he was ordered to hospital about six or seven days later, where he remained 14 weeks. He had been unable to do any work since, even gardening. He had never had any previous trouble with the hip. He had been 16 years with the Army, including eight and a-half years in Africa, and throughout the Great War. In 1921. when he came to New Zealand, he worked for the Railways Department, subsequently taking up the Ngahere and Oriental hotels. He went back to pick and shovel work after that. For the year prior to the accident, lie had lost only half a day through an injury to his hand. To Mr. Kitchingham: It pained him equally as bad to stand as to walk. The property where he resided at Stillwater was owned by his wife. He could milk a cow two or three times a week. He received no hip injury during his war service. The hearing was then adjourned until this afternoon, owing to the medical witness for suppliant being unavailable until 2.15 o’clock.