INQUESTS URGED

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24084, 1 October 1941, Page 10

INQUESTS URGED

HEART FAILURE CASES SUGGESTION BY JUDGE CLAIMS FOR COMPENSATION The importance of having a postmortem examination and inquest in cases where heart disease was believed to be the cause of death was stressed by the Judge of the Compensation Court, Air. Justice ()'Began, in an oral judgment which he delivered in Palmerston North recently. It was a case, in which the widow of a labourer employed by the I'aliiiorston North River Board claimed compensation for the death of her husband. His death occurred several days after he had severely exerted himself. A doctor certified that death was due to heart disease, and there was no postmortem examination. His Honor said that as there was no such examination and no inquest he felt bound to hold that tho plaintiff's case had not been proved, and he had no alternative but to non-suit her, although ho regretted having to do so. "That there was no post-mortem examination and no inquest in this case is much to be regretted, ' said His Honor. "Kor obvious reasons an inquest is advisable nowadays in every case of this class. 1 am blaming nobody, but most certainly it would be well if everybody concerned, relatives, doctors, union secretaries, magistrates and coroners, realised the importance of a post-mortem examination and inquest in every case where there might possibly be a claim for compensation. \ii additional reason why an inquest should be held is that the memory of each witness is much more likely to be accurate at an inquest, necessarily held shortly after death, than when Court proceedings are invoked in. 1113 months later."