COMPENSATION FOR ACCIDENTS

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2122, 3 July 1907, Page 3

COMPENSATION FOR ACCIDENTS

AN INTERESTING POINT. Association. NAPIER, yesterday. A point of considerable interest in connection with compensation for injuries has just been decided by the Arbitration Court: At the last sitting of the Court in Napier Timothy McCarthy applied for enforcement of an award made in November, i9oo, in claimant’s favor for the loss of his arm wluifi employed by Ross and Son, Port Ahuriri such award being for 10s weekly until the total sum of £3O was made or the same ended or redeemed under the provisions of the Act. A counter claim was filed by respondents to have the payments extinguished on the ground that McCarthy was now earning the same wages as at the time of the accident. The Court’s reserved judgment is as follows: “If in the present case claimant had been applying for an award the Court could not liavo awarded him more than a nominal amount in respect of period since lie obtained the present employment, and it follows therefore that the payments under the existing order or the Court should be reduced to a nominal amount. The Court has power to make the reduction operate retrospectively as from the date on which claimant’s incapacity ceased, and we make an order reducing the amount of the award to one penny per week as from February 26th, 1907. If at .any time hereafter claimant is unable, owing to his injury, to earn at least £1 per week, he may apply to this Court to increase the weekly payment.!? '