COMPENSATION CLAIMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20098, 8 November 1928, Page 15

COMPENSATION CLAIMS.

AUCKLAND MEN DROWNED. CHILDREN SUE EXECUTOR. WIDOWS SEPARATE ACTION. [llY TELEGRAPH.—OWN CORRESPONDENT.] CHMSTCHURCH. Wednesday. Tlio circumstances of a peculiar caso were unfolded in tlio Arbitration Court this morning, beforo Air. Justico Frazer. The action nroso out of an incident on November 22. 1927, when tho fishing-boat Dolly was blown out to sea from Auckland and lost, taking to their deaths Thomas Hook and John Henry Maslen.

It was stated that Hook was in the employ of Maslen in tho fishing expedition, receiving a wago of £5 a week. The first action was taken by Louis Daniel Cossill, of Auckland, farmer, in his capacity as guardian ad litem of five children of tho lato Thomas Hook. The plaintiff claimed that Thomas Hook met his death whilo working in tho service of Joseph Henry Maslen, and asked tho Court to grant such sum by way of compensation as tho trial should show to be proper.

Tho defendant cited was Charles Fredeiick Maslen, of Auckland, tho executor of the will-of tho lato Joseph Henry Maslen. Tho defendant denied that Thomas Hook was employed by Maslen to go to sea in tho Dolly, or that ho was in Maslen's service in any way.

An unexpected turn camo when a further claim was mado by Mrs. Sarah Ann Hook, of Christchurch, widow of tho deceased, but riot tho mother of the children named in tlio claim. Tho caso proper will bo heard in the Court at Auckland, and Mrs. Hook's evidence was taken this morning. Mr. T. 1). llnrman appeared on Airs. Hook's behalf, and Mr. W. J. Sim represented tho defendant.

Mrs. Hook said that she married Thomas Hook before the war, and lived with him until ho went to tho war in 1915. lie was wounded and passed and finally discharged in 1917. He returned and joined his wife in Wellington. They afterwards lived in Auckland till 1921. He was a customs officer then. They had never had a quarrel. In November, 1921, she was in Christchurch with her married daughter, their only child, when tho husband met with a bad accident, sustaining a fracture, of his skull. She went to Auckland, and while there she found that her husband was very friendly with a woman named Cossill, but slio did not suspect tho actual state of affairs. Ho told her to go back to Christchurch and wrote a promise to maintain her at tho rate of £6 per month. Previously she had been getting £5 per week. She thought that his accident would prevent him from earning much. He went to a lighthouse and for a while paid her £8 per month. Then in J924 he went on (ho launch Cleopatra, and payments became very irregular. During the year before his death she had only been sent £5. lie had always written saying ho was sorry ho could riot pay her what ho owed, and that he would try to bo more regular. To Mr. Sim witness said that she had never sued her husband in the Magistrate's Court, as she did not, want "to pull him further down," She had always iioped that he would come back to her. She had worked as a domestic, and in an office to keep herself going. This concluded (lie evidence, and a copy of it, will be sent lo the Court at Auckland for the hearing of the case.