FATAL ACCIDENT

Southland Times, Issue 21895, 22 December 1932, Page 11

FATAL ACCIDENT

COMPENSATION CLAIM. RELIEF WORKER’S DEATH, AN INTERESTING POINT. (Per United Press Association.) Christchurch, December 21. The death of a relief worker through an accident when travelling on a lorry after work formed the basis of an interesting compensation case in the Arbitration Court to-day. Argument centred round the liability of certain parties for the accident and whether the relief worker owed a duty to his employers to be travelling in a lorry when he met his death. The plaintiff in the action was Elizabeth Sarah O’Neill, widow, of Rangiora, and the defendants were the Rangiora Borough Council and the North Canterbury Electric Power Board. The Alliance Insurance Company and the Yorkshire Insurance Company were interested in the action as third parties. Five counsel are engaged in the case. On his journey home to Rangiora from work O’Neill was sitting at the back of a lorry with the tarpaulin round him, when the rope of the tarpaulin got caught in the wheels, and he was pulled off and killed instantly. The defendants and the insurance companies deny that O’Neill was in their employment when he was killed. His Honour found that there was no doubt that O’Neill was killed by an accident arising in the course of his employment so that the body which was his employer was liable. On the question of who was O’Neill’s employer, his Honour said O’Neill was certainly in the employ of the Rangiora Borough Council. It had applied for an unemployment grant and was expending it as authorized by the Finance Act. The evidence showed that the understanding all through was that the council was employing the men, the Power Board merely finding work without accepting responsibility. Judgment was for plaintiff against the Rangiora Borough for £591 1/4, funeral and medical expenses £23 18/-, costs £l5 15/-.