WORKER'S DEATH

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 10, 22 December 1932, Page 5

WORKER'S DEATH

AMIDENT ON WAY HOME. COMPENSATION AWARDED. Chnetohuroh, Dec. 21. The death of a relief worker through an accident when travelling on a lorry after work formed the basis of a compensation case in the Arbitration Court to-day. Argument centred round the liability of certain parties for the accident, and whether the relief worker owed a duty to his employers to be travelling in the lorry when he met his death. Plaintiff wa * Elizabeth Sarah O Neill, widow, of Rangiora, and defendants the Rangiora Borough Council and the North Canterbury Electric Power Board. The Alliance Insurance Company and the Yorkshire Insurance Company were interested in the action as third parties. On the journey home to Rangiora from work, Mr. O’Neill was sitting at the back of a lorry with a tarpaulin round him. The rope of the tarpaulin caught in the wheels, and he was pulled off and killed instantly. Defendants and the insurance companies denied that Mr. O’Neill was in employment when he was killed. His Honour found that there was no doubt that O’Neill was killed by an accident arising in the course of his employment, so that the body, which was his employer, was liable, on the question of who wax O’Neill’s employer. His Honour said O’Neill was certainly in the employ of the Rangiora Borough Council. It had applied for an unemployment grant, and was extending it as authorised by the Finance Act. The evidence showed that the understanding all through was that the council was employing the men. The Power Board was merely finding work without accepting responsibility. Judgment was given for plaintiff against the Rangiora Borough for £591 1/4, funeral and medical expenses £?3 18/-, costs £l5 15/-.