CLAIM FOR DAMAGES.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVII, Issue 5054, 19 November 1926, Page 2

CLAIM FOR DAMAGES.

INFANT AWARDED £5OO.

FEET BURNED BY HOT ASHES. "This is a, claim for damages for injuries of a very distressing character suffered by a little child, it is. said, through the negligence of the defendants,” stated Mi - Justice Alpers in a reserved judgment delivered at Wellington on Tuesday. Plaintiffs were William Charles Irwin and his infant son, Jack Hector, and defendants were Thomas Hannah and Ada Hannan, his wife.

Plaintiffs’ statement was that en January 4, 1924, Mrs Irwin and her infant son, who is now aged four years, were lodging with defendants at Otaki. Jack Irwin, it was stated, was allowed by defendants to have access to a yard, in which defendants had, it was alleged, permitted hot ashes and cinders to be deposited and remain. uncovered. While walking about the yard Jack Irwin was severely burned by the ashes, and in consequence- had lost ajl the tees of both feet, and to that extent had been permanehly incapacitated. Plaintiff had incurred medical expenses, and had been put to other expense. He claimed £157 special and the infant claimed £750 general damages. The defence denied negligence, and stated that at the time of the accident the infant was. only seventeen months old, and was in .the custody and under the control of his mother, and the injury (if any) was due to the negligence or want of care on the part of his mother in allowing him to go abroad alone, and in not preventing him from getting -into danger.

“If it were necessary to come to a decision, upon this conflict of evidence I should accept, that d£ plaintiff in preference to that of defendant, Mrs Hannah,” said His Honour. “But on the view I take of the matter it is immaterial whether the ashes were lying about in the open yard or were heaped under he ladder. The child haff the right tp be in the yard; he used also apparently visit the; girls in the tent, with whom he was a favourite. A 1 ladder would be an allurement rather than a deterrent to a child of that age, and nothing was more natural than that he. should play about under it. . . . Assessment

of damages in such a case is peculiarly difficult; adequate compensation is, of course, out of the question; one can only award a contribution towards it. I give judgment in favour of the infant plaintiff, Jack Hector Irwin, for £500.”

Judgment was given in favour of W. O. Irwin tor £73.