A DOUBLE CLAIM.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20089, 4 May 1927, Page 6

A DOUBLE CLAIM.

DEATH OF DIVORCED COUPLE’S SON. SEPARATE ACTIONS A.GAINST EMPLOYER. (Special to Daily Times.) AUCKLAND, May 3. Remarkable features attached to two claims which were made in the Arbitration Court by a divorced couple for compensation in respect to the death of their son. The male claimant was totally blind. The claimants were Constance O'Callaghan, of Whaiigarei (Mr Terry), and Charles Albert Bloomfield, of Christchurch, settler (Mr Prcndcrga&t), and the dofandant was J. B. Ferguson, of Auckland, contractor (Mr G. P. Finlay). The two claimants agreed to the extent that their son, Allen M. Bloomfield, a mechanic, when working for the defendant at Mangatnwhiri Valley on September 27, 1926, received fatal injuries through a tractor widely ho was driving overturning. The deceased* was then earning £4 18s 6d a week. In each case it was argued that tho deceased had substantially supported his parents-, but while the mother made, no specific claim, leaving the amount of compensation to the court, the father sought to recover £503 from his late son’s employer. Mr* O’Callaghan -stated that she had brought up and educated her late son, who, in turn, had substantially supported her when ho wont to work. Her former husband (tho other claimant) was, she said, blind when she married him. Their life was one of domestic discord, and in 1905 she disobeyed an order marta against her for tlio restitution of conjugal rights, and the decree nisi was made absolute. Five years later she remarried. In reply to counsel, Mrs O’Callaghan said_ that her first busband did not meet his son until 1925, in Auckland, but sho_ denied that he had been unaware of the birth of this child, which took place just after they separated. Mr Prennorgast suggested that after tho son saw his blind father for the first time in 1925, the youth, who. "’as then aged 20, transferred his affection and support to him, but this, witness said, had proved only a passing phase, for the son again helped her later. Mr Prendorgost said his client had for many years been totally sightless, and now he suffered from asthma and bronchitis as well. It was contended that he had not known of the existence of his son until 1925, from which date tho youth supported his blind father. After hearing lengthy evidence, the court pave judgment for Mrs O’Callaghan for £6O and for Bloomfield for £75, with costs (£6 6s) each and a special expenses allowance of £5 to Bloomfield. The defendant was directed also to pay. £2O funeral expenses, together with ambulance and doctors’ fees.