COMPENSATION CLAIM.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 82, 5 March 1938, Page 3

COMPENSATION CLAIM.

FARM HAND’S DEATH

Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, March 4

Reserved judgment for defendant was given in the Court of Arbitration to-day by Mr Justice O’Regan ill a compensation case recently heard in Gisborne in which George Howard Moore, of Gisborne, a labourer, sued Roderick Francis Leigh, of Tokomam Bay, a farmer, for £2OB compensation. and £26 I4s fid funeral expenses, in connection with the death by accident on March 29, 1936, of his son, George Frederick Moore, while employed by defendant. The judgment stated that deceased left on horseback on the fatal morning for the cowshed, where he assisted with the milking. He had previously mentioned that he proposed going to inspect a horse with a view to purchasing it. He failed to appear in the cowshed for the evening’s milking. Next day his body was found fully clothed in a deep pool. The Court was asked to hold that deceased was drowned by accident arising out of and in the course of employment. “That deceased deviated from his usual route is clear.” stated Mr Justice O’Regan. “Why he did so it is impossible to say, and in the absence of evidence, we must hold that lie ceased to he in the course of his employment when he did so. There are no known facts which enable us to infer the reason why he went several hundred yards further up the stream. It follows that tho accident neither arose out of the employment nor occurred in the course thereof.”