WORKER'S STATUS

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 34, 10 February 1931, Page 14

WORKER'S STATUS

■UNSUCCESSFUL CLAIM

;.gj»;;;;:-- -'-^■ ' ;■■'-,. .■;:.-.".■.:. ■ ; ;1" ■ '-'■'.■• ': Whether a Worker.'casually employed as' a jobbing gardener was entitled to compensation under tho Workers' Compensation Act "from his employer, as a. result of an accident is dealt with by Mr. Justice Frazer in a reserved judgment to a caso heard, in the Arbitration Court. The case was one in which iSiimuol.', M'Fetridon, gardener,' of Northcotc; -Auckland, 'claimed compensation from -Sidney Edwin M'Gill, grocer, of Northcote, in respect of an injury by accident received by, tho plaintiff,'while in the defendant's 'employment. ; ■ The plaintiff was ( employed by the defendant to :do ; some gardening work about his promises^ and while perform-' ing part of that work ho fell and broko^ his leg.' , ■ ■ , His- Honour, in his judgment, said that the Court was asked to- deal with .tho status, of a worker casually, employed as a jobbing gardener, not as a permanent servant.' There was no authority for the proposition that the employment of a casual gardener was an employment in domestic service within the -meaning of the Workers'/ Compensation ■ Act. M'Fetridon was not.a general liandy man permanently omployod in and about tho defendant's house' and grounds, but was a casual worker employed for a specified quantity of work about tho allotment. Judgment was given for the defendant, and leave was reserved to him to apply ftfr costs. ' ,