GROOM CLAIMS WAGES

Taranaki Daily News, 10 December 1926, Page 10

GROOM CLAIMS WAGES

JUDGMENT FOR FULL AMOUNT. TATARAIMAKA DISPUTE. Whether Albert Edward Adams, farmer of Tataraimaka, owed Reginald Townsend, groom, the sum of £55, the balance of wages and commission was the question Mr. R. W. Tate, S.M., had to determine at New Plymouth yesterday. He decided in favour of Townsend and gave judgment for the full amount with costs, including witness’ expenses totalling £9 Is 4d. Townsend was a groom with' a life experience of the work, and had been trained in England, said counsel. On September 26, 1925, he entered the employ of Adams, and lie was now claiming" the balance of wages and commission due. It was customary for grooms to be paid a wage plus commission. Townsend had charge of one stallion, and was paid £3 a, week and 7 s 6d commission. His remuneration was afterwards raised to £4 a week and 7s 6d commission. He then had charge of two stallions. The claim was made up of £l5 money advanced on loan, because Adams had been up against it, £3 a week for wages from September 28 to October 12, wages from October 12 to February 15 at £4 a week, wages from February 15 to March 2, and commission on 135 mares at 7s 6d, a total of £l5O 2s fid. Plaintiff had received two cheques from Adams for £l5 and £BO respectively, and the sum now said to be owing was £55 2s 6d. The rise in wages to £4 was agreed to, proceeded counsel, because Adams had had trouble with one of the horses. It was arranged that Townsend should take this horse and another about the district in a motor truck. The sum of £7OO was earned that season. Townsend was asked by Adams to wait for his money until the service fees came in. The previous season he had been paid in full at the end of the period. ‘ PUT HIM OFF.”

Townsend, in evidence, described conversations on the matter he had had with Adams, who had “put him off” at various times. On one occasion witness personally served defendant with a blue paper. Witness had previously been in Adams’ employ and when he again entered an engagement in September, 1925, he took charge of a stallion, which he travelled in a motoi- truck. Adams had obtained a horse which turned out to be a “scrub” and difficult to manage. It was decided that it was dangerous to travel it with a hack and that witness should take it with the other stallion in the truck. This was when his wages were raised to £4. Under cross-examihation witness contended that at the end of his first season with Adams there was a suggestion that he should take only one horse in a truck to be obtained the next year. Two horses were not mentioned their; that proposal came later, after the trouble with the other horse. Witness remembered Adams offering him £6 a week without commission to travel one horse. Witness had then told him that he preferred the previous season’s arrangement of £3 a week and 7s 6d commission. There was more incentive to look for business on those terms. He received a cheque for £l5 on March 2, the day he left the employ of Adams. He denied that Adams worked out what was due to him on the basis of 6 1-3 weeks at £2 10s and 16 weeks at £4. Witness agreed to take a cheque for the rest of the money when he saw Adams at the show. When the two met there Adams handed over a cheque for £BO and made a note of a remark by witness that £55 was still owing. In the 192425 season he travelled alone, but in the next season he travelled either with Adams or a boy named Anderson. Otto Beu, of Tataraimaka. who was formerly in partnership with Adams, and John Paul, horse breeder and farmer of Stratford, gave evidence as to the general work and wages of grooms. The latter said he employed Townsend before his engagement by Adams. He regarded him as most reliable and efficient, and preferred him to any other groom who had worked for him.

AN ALLEGED “TRY ON.” “The case was nothing more or less than a try on,” said counsel for Adams. Townsend was attempting to get an additional £55 for his services. The arrangement for the 1925-26 season was £4 a week, a definite wage, with no commission if there was an assistant, but if an assistant was necessary the terms were to be £3 with 5s commission, The conditions of employment in the second season were undoubtedly easier than in the first. Townsend, on his own admission, never travelled more than one stallion at a time, and he took it by lorry instead of leading, as in the previous year. Counsel contended that Townsend's claim between the period from September 28, 1925, to February 15, 1926, £7B, plus £5O 12s 6d for commission, amounted to payment at the rate of £6 8s fid a week. Defendant said that Townsend had been first engaged in the 1924-25 season at £3 a week and 5s commission. At the end of the season, as he had taken undoubted risks, witness voluntarily raised the commission by 2s 6d. For some weeks Townsend was engaged as a farm hand at £2 10s a week. He received a total for the season of £lO5. His arrangement with Townsend was that he was to take one of the two horses out in the truck on alternate days. He would therefore not have any extra work. The amount of £BO paid by cheque cove/ed all that was owing for wages, wit?. the exception of an extra £1 a week which Townsend claimed for 14 weeks for additional work done. Witness had promised an extra £1 a week if Townsend took one horse out in the morning and the other in the afternoon on two days a week, but Townsend never did this, except perhaps on isolated occasions. It was absolutely untrue that he handed over the second horse to Townsend because he could not handle it himself. Witness said that at one time he was considered one of the best men at rough riding and handling wild horses there was in the country. Robert Henry Pepperell, of Waitara, livery stables proprietor, said the stud season commenced on October 1 and finished on January 1, though generally it was extended to January 7. He would not pay for 20 weeks if a groom he employed sent him an account for that period. He thought Adams was very liberal in offering to pay for 16 weeks. Similar evidence was given by Joseph Bond, farmer of Mangorei, and John William Pentelow. of Omata. In announcing his decision, Mr. Tate said that apart from the conversations which Townsend ha 4 with Adams, it seemed to him that the former was entitled to recover. It was quite reasonable that a man who was to have charge of two horses and who had such good

testimonials as those given by Paul was worth more than the rates that witnesses for the defence had quoted in evidence. He considered the amount mentioned was fair and reasonable.