CLAIM FOR COMPENSATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 3899, 4 December 1928, Page 69

CLAIM FOR COMPENSATION.

SEQUEL TO MINE ACCIDENT. GREYMOUTH, November 30. A claim for £2OO was brought in the Warden’s Court, before Mr W. Meldruin (warden) and five assessors to-day by Mrs Mary Tennant, of Blackball, against the Blackball Coal Company on account of the death of her husband, Duncan Tennant, as the result of injuries received while working in defendants’ mine on October 9, 1927. The proceedings were not brought under the Workers’ Compensation Act, but under section 147 of the Coal Mines Act. The deceased was an underviewer, and entered the mine between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. He was expected to attend a lecture about 9 a.m., but he was not present. A search was instituted, and he was found about 2 p.m. pinned under a fall from the roof about five minutes' walk from the mine entrance. Counsel for plaintiff, Mr J. P. O’Regan, said that the deceased died from shock, and that had he been extricated sooner he would have recovered. Negligence was alleged on two grounds—that the inspection of the mine was made alone and that assistance was not available when the accident occurred, and that the defendants failed to provide telephonic communication throughout, the mine. For the defence, Mr C. S. Thomas said there was no case against the company. No evidence had been called to show that it was negligent for tne underviewer to enter the mine without a mate. There was no onus upon a coal company to install communication between the various sections of the mine and the surface, but only between the end of the main haulage road and the surface. There was no case to go to the assessors. The warden, in giving judgment for defendants, said there was no occasion to submit the case to the asssessors. The defendants had done all that was required of them, and there was no evidence of negligence on their part. There was no other course but to give judgment for defendants, with costs.