BOY AWARDED £250

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20119, 13 December 1939, Page 7

BOY AWARDED £250

CLOTHES SET ON FIRE BURNING PETROL THROWN (Per Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, this day. A boy’s dash down a Hokitika street with his clothes afire after he had been accidentally sprinkled with burning petrol, was recalled in the Supreme Court this morning. Fulton and Hogan Limited, Dunedin, pavement specialists, brought an originating summons asking the court to approve of the compromise of a claim against them by Andrew Tulloch, aged 16, Hokitika. Counsel for the company said that £250 damages for the boy to be held by the Public Trustee until he was 21 and £l9 for his parents to pay their expenses, had been agreed on as a settlement. Counsel said one of the company’s employees was trying to start a lorry without success. He asked another for assistance and, as one primed the carburettor from a bottle of petrol, the other pressed the starter. The spark ignited the petrol and the man holding the bottle hastily flung it away. Unfortunately, Tulloch, a message boy, was standing near and his clothes were ignited. He dashed away, but luckily two men caught him and extinguished the flames. Tulloch suffered burns on the chest and arms. The court approved of the compromise.