TOUCHING MRS. TURPIN

NZ Truth, Issue 770, 7 August 1920, Page 6

TOUCHING MRS. TURPIN

A Curious Compensatioa Case Lady -of Many Lapses Gets. £500. The Arbitration .Court, Mr. Justice Stringer' presiding, turned itself into" a Compensation Court on Thursday morning to hear the claim of Jennie Turpin, -widow, of Dannevirke, for £500 compensation from the Rangataua Timber Co., of Taihape. Mr. P. J. O'Regan appeared for plaintiff and Mr. O. R. Beere for the defendant company. The compensation was claimed by plaintiff on account of the death of her late husband, Prank Turpin, a sawmill hand, who met with a fatal accident while working on a log-hauler on September 28, 1919. The company, while denying liability, had paid funeral and medical expenses without prejudice. The widow swept into the box becomingly clad m deep mourning: and told the court that she was totally dependant on her late husband for maintenance and support. There were no children of the marriage, and : her late husband's children by a former marriage were all grown up and self-supporting:. Complainant said she married her late husband some eighteen months before ho met with his death. Some six weeks prior to the accident, howover, she had left him to go to Dannevirke to work m order to boost up the family finances. While m Dan- ' nevirko plaintiff produced a letter and telegram from deceased which were couched m friendly terms. I To Mr. Beere plaintiff admitted that alii? was at present an inmate of the Terrace Gaol, at which institution who was serving; A POUR MONTI-IK' SENTENCE. j h'.ho said she ftO t the "stretch" for being adjudged idle and disorderly at Wangunui. Plaintiff did .not deny | also that sho had put her boots under a prison bed on several prior occasions for being an incorrigible rogue also a shikker. She denied, howe\-er\ that she had cleared out from her ' late hubby, but admitted, quite cheerfully, that on the fatal day she loft him to go to Dannevirke to work, she got next to one month's imprisonment for drunkenness, so that her work m Dannevirke was postponed for one moon Plaintiff said that her trouble was "Mister Booze," but added that her late hubby always looked on her lapses with a lenient eys and they were always good robbers The court decided that the defendant company had failed to prove as required under the Act, that the plaintiff had deserted her husband Without just cause. The 'proceedings had certainly showed that it was a case which required investigation find a rather deplorable state of af- | fmrs had been disclosed so far as the worn Tin was concerned, but there was j n.othimc to disqualify her from receiv- ■ ing compensation. Th P court was cervninly Rsirnrip.ed . w;rh her truthfult.'Ost ami the fact that she had readii.v admitted her lapses. Judgment was entered figain^t the company for £500. but the- court directed that the "dm.;.rh" should he namled to the Public Trustee to pclminister on the- woman's behalf