CLAIM FOR COMPENSATION.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2339, 4 November 1908, Page 5

CLAIM FOR COMPENSATION.

VALUE OF THE RIGHT HAND.

JUDGMENT RESERVED

At the Arbitration Court yesterday morning, before His Honor Justice Sim, and Messrs R. Brown (employers’ representative), and J. A. McCullough '(workers’ representative). Robert Burnett proceeded, against Oxcnham and Baty to recover £3OO. as compensation for the loss of his right hand, which occurred a® the result of an accident while in respondent's employ. * , Air. G. Stock appeared for the claimant, and respondents were represented by Air. W. L. Rees. Prior to the hearing being commenced, Air. W. L. Rees said that his clients, without acknowledging liability, were prepared, to pay £IOO on account of the suffering and distress which had been caused to the claimant. ‘ /

Air.- G. Stock said that he was not prepared to accept tho offer. Air. Stock reviewed the circumstances of the accident, and claimed that it was„entiroly owing to negligence. The claimant was an if,literate man. and had altogether lost the use of ibis right hand. Robert Burnett said that on May 4th, while employed, by Messrs Oxenham and Baty he met with the accident. He had no previous experience in brick-making, and was engaged in feeding a pug-mill I .' Witness described at length the character and position of the -mill on the second floor, and at which he was working, and said that, when he threw his machine out oUgear it could be started from below' by any other person who desired to do so. On the day the accident occurred the machinery was stopped by a signal from the floor below. A stone had got into the mill he was working, and he .got down on his knees to take it out, and when ho was doing so the machinery was started from below without any warning, and crushed his hand. Since then his hand had been amputated at the wrist. He was earning Is’ per hour while employed at respondents’, and before that had. been working in IrcVand on. his father’s farm, but was getci'ng no wages.

To Mr. Ilees: He was quite sure that the machinery could he thrown into gear from- below. He threw the roller® and upright shovel out of gear, hut was not shown a great deal ■about his mill. The first thing he knew, a- moment after he stopped his machine, was that his fingers were caught in the rollers, owing to someone below having started the machinery. . Denis Carmod3 T , Inspector of Factories, gave evidence of having received a report of the accident from Air. Oxenham. He visited the brickworks and found the mill to he erected on an elevated platform, the clay was deposited on the platform and shovel-fed into the mill, which consisted of two rollers and a perpendicular spade to force the clay ' between the rollers. The machinery could be thrown in or out of gear by either the person working the mill or by an j’ person on the ground floor below. He pointed out these defects to Air. Oxcnham, and they had been remedied. In conversation with some of the brickyard emplcyees he was told' that they could not say if the machinery had stopped on that particular day or not.

This concluded the evidence for the claimant, and Mr. Rees detailed the evidence lie proposed to cat! for the respondents, and claimed that he would be able to prove conclusively that the machinery had not been stoplied at the time. of the accident or tor some time previously. Wm. Jas. Lowe stated that die was fireman at the brickworks at the time the accident happened, to the claimant. That afternoon, about- 2.30, lie ■had diea-rd two screams coining from the direction of the pug-mill. Ho jumped up to the platform and pulled two levers, one to stop the mill and the other the rollers. He then prized open the ro’Xers to assist the claimant to release his band. Ho did not notice the pug-mill stopped at all just prior to the .accident. There wias no lever below to stop or start the rollers of the pug-mill, but only the spade. If the machinery stopped it could only have been .for a short time, and witness had told/ claimant how to take stones out of the clay. He (witness) did not set the machinery in operation prior to the accident. To Mr. iStock: He did not tell the Inspector of Factories that ho did (not -know whether the machinery had stopped or not. It would/ he impossible to extract a stone from the rollers while they werejrevolving. Edward Burton, a youth of 18, also gave evidence as to the accident taking place. He was cutting off the clay as it caine through the machine and heard Burnett scream. Low, the previous witness, sprang up and -putthe rollers out of gear, and he (witness) then threw the -pug-mill, out of gear. Immediately prior to tlio accident <i*tehc machinery was not stopped. ’ -a To Mr. Stock: He could not remember every time the machine stopped, as it happened so often. He did not tell the- Inspector of Factories that he could not remember if the machinery had been stopped or not. John Oxenham stated that the lever to work the rollers was manipulated from on top, -the belt had a tendency to work off, a fast pulley, but not on, and he -could, not say if the machinery was in or out- of gear. He knew of times when the whole machine had been started from below, but it was -always customary to call out to the man on top. Sydenham. Oxenham said that when the rollers were running without any clay between them the noise they made cou!d*be heard half-a-mile. He had known ’r-he roller mill to be put into gear from below, but not often. To Mr. Stock: The Inspector of Factories did not condemn the machinery as unsafe, nor did he give any instructions as regards remedying it. Dennis Carmody, recalled, said that five weeks ago he inspected the- brickworks and found that the lever to work the pug-mill from below had been removed, and- Mr. Oxenham had told him that it had been done, away, with. (He was quite certain that the conversations lie bad ..with the employees of Oxenham aiid Baty weie exactly as he--had given _tliem. gr ' This concluded Hie evidence'; and after counsel had'add.ressed the Court His Honor said that the Court would take time to consider their- decision.