SHIPPING AND StAMtN'S ACT

West Coast Times, 4 September 1909, Page 4

SHIPPING AND StAMtN'S ACT

AN IMPORTANT RULING.

[PEB PRESS ASSOCIATION. — COPTEIGHT ]

WELLINGTON, Sept. 3.— ,Tiwt,iec Cooper gave judgment at the Supreme Court to-day in the appeal case of Smith v. Lambert. The appellant is superintendent of the Mercantile Marine and respondent Watson was employed on the Union Coy's Arahura. Captain Lambert was charged before Mr Ruldell, S.M., with leaving John Peebles, a fireman, at Wellington without making provision for him under the Shipping and Seaman's Act. Peebles went into the hospital for treatment and rejoined his ship alter recovering from the operation. The Act requires a master of a ship to deposit a sum necessarj' for maintenance and medical expenses. The Magistrate found for defendant, holding that it was doubtful if at the time of Peebles discharge from the ship the injury from which he was suffering was such as to wholly incapacitate him, and that he was not "left on shore" within the yeaning of the Act. The judge upheld the Magistrate's finding and dismissed the appeal with costs. It was only when a man was wholly prevented from performing his work by illness that he v-as entitled to benefit by ,the section under which the prosecution was taken.