DAMAGES CLAIM

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 15 February 1930, Page 7

DAMAGES CLAIM

BATH THAT COST £33,500. The comfortable sum of £33,500. is the award granted to Miss Juanita Hansen, formerly a prominent film actress, in one of the most unusual suites for damages ever heard in an American Court, writes the New York correspondent of the “Daily Mail.-’ Miss Hansen told a Supreme Court jury at White Plains, New York, that she> took a bath at the Hotel Lincoln during the heat wave in June, 1928, and turned the shower hanlle marked “Cold.?’ , Instead of enjoying the' cooling sensation she expected, she said scalding water poured out, and for many days she suffered l so terribly from its effect tliat she was at the point of death. Her back was disfigured, she could not raise Tier arms, and she spent thousands of dollar on medical treatment. The accident, she asserted, left her unable to earn her living. Miss Hansen’s evidence was supported 'bv doctors. The hotel proprietors, on the other hand, sought to prove that she was a drug addict. Miss Hansen admitted that at one time she took drugs, but she declared that early in the year she had written articles for a New York newspaper telling of her victorious fight against their pernicious influence. Dr. Nathaniel Boardman stated that when Miss Hansen, whoi was one of Hie eax-lv stars in the film world, realis'd bow badly her face was- scarred, she refused to have a mirror in her room, nor would she permit the furniture to be so highly polish-off as to. reflect her features. Miss Hansen claimed £50,000 damages.