AN UNUSUAL CLAIM

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18264, 6 December 1933, Page 12

AN UNUSUAL CLAIM

WOMAN’S FINGER INJURED CAUGHT IN CLEANER (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. A woman who injured one of her fingers while using u vacuum cleaner, proceeded against me agent, who soul it to her, in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday, claiming Llbd t4s (xl damages. It was stated that while the plaintiff was using tlie cleaner, a detacliaLue handle came off, and as she grasped the body of it to pick it up, one of her lingers entered a hole in the side and was injured by the revolving blades of ihe blower. Sbe contracted tetanus, spent 31 days in hospital, and the linger was now permanently stiff. It was alleged that either the cleaner was of a dangerous nature and that the defendant committed a breach of his duty in not warning the plaintiff, or that it was not fit for the purpose for which it had been sold, or bad not beeli properly repaired. The defendant applied for a nonsuit on the ground that the vendor of an article of the kind was not hound to see that it would not he misused. The magistrate reserved decision mi the nonsuit point, and evidence was called to show that the cap was of the type used in other devices of the kind, and that 1500 cleaners of the kind had been sold in Wellington without any mishap. It was contended that the cap would not have come off in ordinary use, and that the sole cause of the accident was the plaintiff’s negligence.