CLAIMS FOR COMPENSATIVE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13722, 11 April 1908, Page 8

CLAIMS FOR COMPENSATIVE.

ACTION AGAINST A FARMER. [V.Y TKI.T-.GEA.rH.— PRESS ASSOCIATION.] Gore, Friday. In- the Gore Court yesterday three claims, totalling £400, were made, against John Dixon, a farmer, of Otama. The claimants were employed by respondent in August of last year, when everyone in Dixon's house, numbering ten, including- four workmen, were laid aside by an attack of vomiting. Doctors diagnosed the cases as arsenical poisoning. It was then found that a tin containing a preparation used for killing Californian thistle, which had been hanging in a storeroom by a. wire, had fallen, and the poison had apparently reached the foodstuffs It was stated that one claimant for £200 had lost the power of his limbs, and was still unable to work, and some of the family were still under the. doctor's care. Counsel for the claimants argued that the accident came within the terms of, the Workers' Compensation Act. Counsel for the defence submitted that the case must fail, as the claims were not lodged within four months. He. further argued that there had been no accident and that if there had been, it was not one arising out of the men's ordinary employment, and that their employment must he the cause before the claimants could re-t-over; further, that if they could recover, all thftt could he claimed was half wages. Counsel for the claimants held that their claims were not prejudiced by failure to give notice, and argued that the poisoning came within the definition of accident. j Judgment was reserved.