SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGES

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 9961, 3 May 1918, Page 5

SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGES

AWARDED WHARF LABOURERS DRENCHED WITH SULPHURIC ACID. A cablegram lias been received from Melbourne, stating that five wharf labourers, named respectively Charles Faulknicr, James Ooutts, H. Barnes, George Jones, and T. Anderson, have been awarded -56850. damages for injuries received at Auckland while engaged ;in unloading the steamship Monowai. The defendants in the action were the Wischer Proprietary, Ltd., of Melbourne, and a brief history of the case is as follow; On the evening of Friday, Soptemmber 7th, 1916, an accident of an unusual and terrible nature occurred on board the- Union Company’s steamer, then being discharged at Auckland. A number of waterside workers were in the act' of unloading a quantity of deck cargo, including five drums of sulphuric acid. One of the drums was being placed in a sling, preparatory to its being hoisted ashore, when n quantity of the acid shot from anifchor drum standing a few feet away, completely drenching the men who were in the vicinity. Altogether some thirteen men were injured, some only slightly. Others, however, were less fortunate, and three of them, named respectively Charles Franlin, fifty-three years of age, James Ooutts, fifty-one years of age, and Henry Barnes, fifty years of age, had- their eyesight completely destroyed, and two others— George Jones, aged forty-two years, and Thomas Anderson, aged sixty-nine years—were obliged to remain in hospital for months by reason of their injuries. On investigation it was found that effusion of acid from the drum was due to the fact that a rubber plug had been inserted as a cork in an orifice in the drum. The drum had been designed with an externally threaded nipple, over which should have been screwed, an iron screw-cap. The person who filled the drum, instead of •threading the nipple, placed a rubber stapip in. the,hole,- .and omitted the serqw-cap altogether'. The accident was subsequently made the subject of a Royal Cunijiission,’ of which Mr Kettle, S.M., was the chairman. The Commission found that the acid had been shipped at Melbourne for Dunedin, and thence transhipped and conveyed to Auckland. The Commission unanimously condemned the- rubber plug, and ascribed the accident to the use of it. As the.- nocident occurred in the course of, the men’s employment by tho Union Steamship Company, they were entitled to payment by that company tinder the Workers’ Compensation Act, and weekly payments were at once made as prescribed by the Act. The Act, however, did not take away the right of an injured man to bring action at common law, claiming damages, and accordingly the five men who were most severely injured by the accident commenced Melbourne, claiming damages from shippers of the acid, Messrs Rosenham' and Co., and their agents, the Wisober Proprietary, Ltd., by whom the drum had been filled with the fluid. ■ After the writs had been issued. Mr Rosenham died, and the actions abated so far as he wag concerned, but they proceeded against the defendant company. In December, 1917. a commission, on the application of the plaintiffs, issued out of the'Supreme 1 Court of Victoria for the-pnrposb of taking evidence at Auckland, and ' under that commission some twenty-five witnesses were examined: The five actions were likewise consolidated' pursuant to the procedure usual in such a case, and were ordered to be tried as one action. The following were the amounts claimed. — Charles Faulkiner, £2500; James Coutts, ,£2500; H. Barnes, £200; George Jones, £1000; and T. Anderson. £3oomaking a total of £B3OO. Mr P. J. O’Regan, of Wellington, appeared, for the injured men before Who Royal Commission, and it was on bis advice that proceedings for damages were instituted in Melbourne.