COMPENSATION CLAIMED FOR WORKING IN RAIN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18453, 2 May 1928, Page 5

COMPENSATION CLAIMED FOR WORKING IN RAIN.

Per Press Association. AUCKLAND, May 1. A compensation claim of interest to employers of outdoor labour was heard before Mr Justice Frazer in the Arbitration Court, to-day, when the chief point at issue was whether an employee who contracted an illness through exposure to rain, in the course of his w’ork could be said to have been the victim of an accident within the meaning of the Workers’ Compensation plainiff, Harry Bresant, claimed from the Northern Steamship Company, compensation for time lost, and medical expenses incurred, when he was incapacitated for two weeks with an attack of muscular rheumatism, alleged to have been caused through exposure while engaged in ship painting, for the defendant, company. During work he was exposed to heavy rain. Counsel for the defence said that the case was brought to obtain the Court’s ruling. The defence, while making a general denial of the circumstances, contended that the falling of rain, in the course of ship cleaning work, was not an untoward or unlooked-for occurrence, and any such conditions which, it was alleged, had caused plaintiff's

illness, were such as would be normally anticipated. “Could plaintiff, on arriving home, after having received a wetting, have told anyone that he had met with an accident?” asked counsel. Decision was reserved.