A SAWMILLING CASE.

New Zealand Mail, 21 February 1901, Page 23

A SAWMILLING CASE.

INVERCARGILL, February 15. A Alagistrate’s Court action which has been watched with interest has been settled. One O’Connor sued McCallunu and Company, sawmillers, for £2OO damages. The plaintiff was slabby and sawdust man at the mill, and had l had no previous experience. The dust from the saw was removed by a dredge-belt, which got choked and stopped. O’Connor went to the belt- at the end, under the bench, and while pulling at it with his hands, raised his arm against the under side of the saw, which gashed it. The doctor’s evidence was that it would he two years before plaintiff would recover the use of it, and then only partially. The hearing was a lengthy one,: and the decision was looked forward to by sawmillers as a test one, the defendants relying mainly on the fact that plaintiff could, and should, have gone to the other end of the belt, where there was no* danger, and that no workman would think of cleaning away sawdust* by putting his hands in such a place. To-day it was announced that the defendants (an old and respected firm), while still denying their liability,’..had offered the plaintiff, whose misfortune they regretted, a* sum, which he had accepted.