COMPENSATION CLAIM

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22389, 8 April 1936, Page 16

COMPENSATION CLAIM

INJURY TO SPINE AWARD TO LABOURER Compensation amounting to a little over £4O was awarded by the Arbitration Court yesterday to Leo Joseph Grey McCormick, of Grey Lynn (Mr. Sullivan) against the Public Works Department (Mr. Meredith). The plaintiff received a spinal injury on July 4, 1935, while assisting as a labourer to dig a drain on a mangrove flat of the Kaipara Harbour. He claimed that in consequence of the accident he suffered serious injury to his neck and spine and had been totally incapacitated from that date. His average weekly earnings at the time of the accident were £3 7s 3d and up to October 21 he had received weekly compensation of £2 4s lOd. He asked for compensation at this rate to the date of the hearing and any further lump eum that might bo shown to be reasonable.

In delivering the judgment of the Court yesterday, Mr. Justice Page said that in the opinion of the Court the weight of evidence , was that the plaintiff would suffer a permanent, though very slight, loss of efficiency and of earning power. It proposed to award him half compensation from October 21 to the present date, amounting to £26 19s, and thereafter compensation at the rate of 2J per cent of full compensation for the balance of the statutory period, amounting to £l3 10s lOd, making a total of £4O 9s lOd.