WORKERS' COMPENSATION

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 178, 23 April 1920, Page 8

WORKERS' COMPENSATION

o .. A PRIVY COUNCIL DECISION. The judgment of the Privy ■ Council, which was delivered v by Lard Buckmaster, in the case of the Union : Steam Ship Company (appellants) and Mary Kathleen Brown Robin (respondent)' has been received by the Registrar of the Supreme Court. John Robin, a waterside worker, while at. work on one of the company's vessels in Napier was accidentally killed, and his adopted daughter (the respondent , named above) brought 'an action to re-; cover .£IOOO damages. The company applied to the Court to have the amount of the claim reduced to .£SOO, upon the ground that Robin's death was caused byi the. negligence of a fellow-servant, and that by section 13 of the Workers' Com-' pensation Act no servant was entitled to recover from bis employer in respect of tlie negligence of a fellow-servant a larger sum by way of damages than ,£SOO. This motion came before Mr. Justice Hosking, who dismissed it. The Union Company'then took the case to the Appeal Court, and Mr. Justice Denniston and Mr. Justico Chapman approved the judgment of Mr. Justice Hosking, while the Chief Justico (Sir Robert Stout) andiMr. Justice Cooper dissented; consequently the original judgment stood, and the Union Company carried the case to the Privy Council. The question involved was purely one of law, and depended upon the construction to be placed upon various Acts of Parliament.. Their Lordships dismissed the appeal. This means that Miss Robin will npw be able to proceed with her suit for ,£IOOO damages.