CLAIM FOR £2000

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22971, 24 February 1938, Page 18

CLAIM FOR £2OOO

DEATH IN QUAERY I i>ACTION BY PUBLIC TRUSTEE t'• ; . ; CLOSE OF ' THE EVIDENCE The hearing o£ a claim for £2OOO made by .the Public Trustee as administrator of the estate of the late Daniel Leslie Lees, of Miatata, against the Whakatane County Council was continued before Mr. Jjustice Callau and a jury at the Supreme Court yesterday. ( >.Lees and a man niamed Mason were .killed by a fall of material in tha council's quarry at Matata on June 2 of last year. Mr. Haigli and Mr. Henry represented the Public Trustee, and Mr. V. E. Meredith and Mr. W. I. Smith conducted the defence. Plaintiff alleged that the accident was ctue to negligence on the part oi the council's servants, and that defective methods of working had exposed the deceased to unreasonable risk. Lees was 43 years old at the time, and the claim of £2OOO was'made for his loss of expectation of life. The defence denied that the pit was a quarry within the scope of the Stone Quarries Act, and said that the fatality was due to inevitable accident. Tt further alleged that the accident was due to the negligence of Lees, who was an experienced man in charge of the pit, or to his contributory negligence. Quarry Oonsldered Sale

Evidence was called yesterday for thV defence. The engineer to the Whakatano County Council and the Whakatane Harbour Board, Cedric Havelock Brebner, said in his opinion the Matata quarry had been worked in the only safe and economical way for thlat class of country. Inspectors under «the Stone Quarries Act had ne\ei classed this as a stone quarry. Neither the graxvel nor the overburden could by any stretch of the imagination bo classed aa stone.

His Honor: You don't think any human beting short of Samson would be able to* break stone with his bare hands ?

Witness: s That is so, sir. His Honour: Well, that is a practical test.'

Witness said benching had never been used at Matata, and that would not be a safe method to use there. He knew of no accident there beforo this one. It was the duty of the man in charge after a shot had .been fired thoroughly to examine the face before w or k was recommenced. He would class Lees as a very good quarrvman of vast experience. In cross-exanjination witness said work was not resumed in the quarry for some months after the accident. Ho did not know that an inspector had reported that the place was dangerous. Too Heavy a Charge It was true that at the coroner's inquest ho had said he would not recommend placing men to work underneath where the slip took place. He considered the eight plugs of gelignite, at the point indicated by the witness, Moki, was too heavy a charge to use. In his opinion it was that shot that was responsible for bringing down this slip. George Simpson, surfaceman for the "VVhakatane County Council, detailed the precautions ho took when shots were fired at the Matata quarry. Ho did not consider tho perpendicular faces there dangerous. Asked about previous accidents he said a wheelbarrow had got " a bit dimpled " at one time, but he had not, heard of a man beine injured. He did not think the shot Moki fired had caused the fall, but there was a possibility that it miclit have done so. The case was adjourned for the hearing of addresses to-day.