A COMPENSATION CASE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14648, 6 April 1911, Page 6

A COMPENSATION CASE.

UNSUCCESSFUL CLAIM, [Hi: TELEGIUra.-HPRESS ASSOCIATION.] ..* Weu.xsqt'on', Wednesday. An important "point was involved in & case heard at Wanganui recently, by Mr. Justice Sim, whose judgment was read to the parties-here to-day by the clerk of awards. The parties were Catherine Lawson (plaintiff), and Levin and Company, Ltd. (defendants). , . ~ Stephen Lawson, husband of the plaintiff, had been employed by the defendants an second mate of the steamer Himitangi, being engaged for that position in Wanga-« nui on July 8 last On the following day ho wont to New Plymouth to join the steamer. He had his evening meal aboard, and went ashore and had a drink at the Breakwater Hotel with two other members of the crew. Ho left the hotel saying ho was! going aboard, but he did not return to the steamer, and there was no evidence of his having been • seen again, alive. On the following morning his dead body wan picked up in the sea alongside the wharf, about oOyda from the place where the steamer had been lying. Plaintiff alleged that deceased was drowned by, accident arising out of the course of his employment by the defendants, ■; and claimed compensation accordingly. ■'' The Court held that Lawson** employment began when he joined the steamer on the evening of July 9. As to whether deceased met with an accident arising out of, «nd in the course of, his employment, the Court held there was nothing in the evidence to justify such a contention. He had left the steamer for his own purposes, and without obtaining leave from the master. Any accident that happened to him. before he got back to the steamer could not be treated as having arisen out, of his employment. The steamer, and not the wharf, was th© scene of his dutv. The Court decided that the plaintiff had failed to prove that the death of deceased was caused by an accident arising out of this employment, and judgment was given ' for defendants, with costs £10" 10s, disbursements and witnesse&'s expenses.