CLAIM FOR DAMAGES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 10 August 1928, Page 5

CLAIM FOR DAMAGES.

LOSS OF FINGERS

BOY’S SUIT AGAINST DRAINAGE

t ONTHACTO RS

ißy Telegraph—Press Association.)

AUCKLAND, Aug. 9. A claim for £IOOO general damages and £l(3 special damages was made before Mr. Justice Blair and a jury by Arthur Frederick Rose, aged 18, by In.-, guardian, \Y. A. Rose,- against tom Grinter, Frank C. Grinter, and James A Grinter, drainage contractors, ior the loss of fingers of the- left hand by an -explosion ox a detonator. Harold Rose said that when playing with his brother on a dump ox spoil from Grinter Bros.’ tunnelling contract he found two little brass things. He gave them to his brother Arthur. The latter said that he was scraping the clay out of one of the detonators when there was an explosion. George Rose, brother ox plaintiff, said that on the same afternoon as the accident happened a man found two more detonators lying near the contractors’ sheds. Another brother, W 7 illiam Rose, said that while levelling out a filling m his ather s backyard with dirt supplied by tbe contractors, be found a detonator with a fuse attached. Replying to the judge, he admitted the filling was surfaced with scoria which came from somewhere other than the tunnel ivories. . , , * Leonard Ivan Keat said he had seen i .uses and gelignite, but not detonators, ■placed outside the mouth of the tunnel before the date of the- accident. Opening for the defence, counsel said that in his opinion the boys had known very* well what detonators were. He would call evidence to show how careful.y explosives had been used and stored. The clerk of works to the drainage board, or which the work had been done, denied the statement that explosives were carried in open kerosene tins.The court then adjourned.