INJURED FINGER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 288, 6 December 1933, Page 7

INJURED FINGER

VACUUM CLEANER MISHAP. CLAIM AGAINST AGENT. L Per Press Association, j WELLINGTON, Dec. 5. A woman who injured ono of hei lingers while using a vacuum cleaner, proceeded against the agcut who sold it to her in the Magistrate’s Court today, claiming £lB9 14s 6d damages. Plaintiff was Agues Martha Paterson and defendant W. H. Wallace. It was stated that while plaintiff was using a cleaner, the detachable handle came Off, and as she grasped the body of it to pick it up, oue of her lingers entered a hole in the side and was injured by the revolving blades of the blower. She contracted tetanus and spent 31 days in a hospital, and her linger was now permanently stiff. She alleged that cither the cleaner was of a dangerous nature and the defendant committed a broach of duty in not warning plaintiff, or it was not lit for the purpose for which it had been sold, or had not been properly repaired. Defendant applied for a non suit on tho ground that the vendor of an article of thc kind was not bound. Tho magistrate reserved his decision on the non-suit point, und evidence was called to show that the cap was of a type used in other devices of the kind, and 1500 cleaners of tho 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 plaintiff’s negligence.